Extension  Syllabi,  Series  cA,  No.  12.    Price  20  Cents 


SYLLABUS 


of  a   Course   on 


The  Philosophy  of  Education 


Education  102  —  Philosoph#iRP  OF 

' 


J* 


COPYRIGHT,  1904,  BY 

TEACHERS   COLLEGE,   COLUMBIA   UNIVERSITY 
NEW  YORK  CITY 


18667 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTORY   NOTE 

I.  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

1.  The  problem  of  philosophy 

2.  The  relation  of  the  sciences  to  philosophy 

3.  The  philosophy  of  education 

II.  THE  PHILOSOPHICAL  BASES  OF  EDUCATION:  EVOLUTION  AND  IDEALISM 

4.  Evolution  as  a  working  hypothesis 

5.  Idealism  as  a  principle  of  interpretation  in  nature  and  history 

6.  Certain  implications  of  the  idealistic  construction  of  evolution 

III.  PHILOSOPHY  OF  THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

7.  The  philosophy  of  history 

8.  The  '  content '  of  civilization 

9.  Modern  civilization  as   affected  by  the  civilizations  of  Greece, 
Rome  and  Judea 

10.  The  theory  of  social  evolution. 

11.  The  philosophy  of  the  history  of  education 

IV.  THE  PRESUPPOSITIONS  OF  EDUCATION  :  PERSONALITY  AND  ENVIRONMENT 

12.  Philosophy   of   education   as   a   critique   of   educational   presup- 
positions 

13.  Personality  as  a  presupposition  of  education 

14.  The  nature  of  environment 

V.  THE  INDIVIDUAL  AND  SOCIETY 

15.  Philosophy  of  education  and  the  philosophy  of  society 

16.  Typical  conceptions  of  the  relation  of  the  individual  to  society 

17.  The  conception  of  society  as  an  organism 

18.  Social  membership:  the  ethical  doctrine  of  personality 

VI.  MORAL  INSTITUTIONS 

19.  Human  institutions  and  the  ideal  of  a  '  common  good ' 

20.  The  moral  value  of  institutions 

21.  The  moral  institutions 


4  The  Philosophy  of  Education 

VII.  THE  ETHICS  OF  DEMOCRACY 

22.  Transitional  character  of  the  society  of  the  present 

23.  The  ethics  of  democracy 

24.  The  process  of  social  evolution 

VIII.  THE  COURSE  OF  PERSONAL  DEVELOPMENT 

25.  The  philosophy  of  mind  as  philosophy  of  education 

26.  The  course  of  individual  development 

27.  The  ideal  as  '  self-realization ' 

28.  The  place  of  education  in  the  course  of  individual  development 

29.  Philosophy  of  education  as  knowledge  of  the  presuppositions  of 
individual  development 

IX.  THE  SCHOOL  AS  A  SOCIAL  INSTITUTION 

30.  The  continuity  of  the  educational  process 

31.  Historical  evolution  of  the  school 

32.  The  social  organization  of  the  school 

X.  THE  INTELLECTUAL  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

33.  The  problem  of  the  course  of  study 

34.  The  course  of  study  as  interpreted  by  Dr.  Harris 

35.  Professor  Rein's  formulation  of  the  subject-matter  of  instruction 

36.  Professor  Dewey's  interpretation  of  the  course  of  study 

37.  The  meaning  of  the  course  of  study 

38.  The  method  of  education  in  the  evolution  of  civilization. 


SYLLABUS  OF  A  COURSE  IN  THE  PHILOSOPHY 
OF  EDUCATION 

EDUCATION  102  — PHILOSOPHY  12 


The  rough  notes  and  suggestions  furnished  in  this  syllabus  are  but 
words  along  the  way.  They  merely  attempt  to  indicate  a  point  of  view 
for  the  consideration  of  the  general  problem  of  education  conceived  in 
a  philosophical  spirit  and  yet  in  accordance  with  scientific  method.  It 
is  hoped  that  they  may  afford  the  student  some  aid  in  two  directions: 
(a)  in  enabling  him  to  follow  the  general  progress  of  the  course  in  the 
Philosophy  of  Education,  and  (6)  by  a  little  classification  to  systematize 
his  knowledge  to  a  degree.  What  is  offered  in  this  outline  may  smooth 
the  ground  somewhat:  anything  further  would  be  valueless  unless  it  were 
worked  out  with  a  completeness  altogether  beyond  the  scope  of  a  syllabus. 
Its  purpose  is  to  guide  and  here  and  there  offer  rough  notes  of  criticism 
or  interpretation.  It  is  recognized  that  in  several  sections  indulgence  in 
generalization  has  destroyed  thoroughness  in  detail.  A  syllabus,  at  best, 
is  only  provisional.  The  outlines  and  references  may  prove  suggestive 
in  some  directions :  they  are  not  intended  to  be  exhaustive  in  any  direc- 
tion whatever.  The  effort  to  be  immediately  practical  is  postponed  in 
favor  of  a  study  of  what  education  has  meant  in  the  past  and  its  signifi- 
cance in  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  life  of  the  present  —  in  other  words, 
in  favor  of  a  study  of  the  idea  of  the  educational  process  in  its  organic 
wholeness.  The  method  of  the  syllabus  is  admittedly  somewhat  tenta- 
tive. As  such,  it  is  regarded  merely  as  a  working  hypothesis  —  a  plan  of 
action  —  to  be  justified  by  results,  and  is  subject  to  both  criticism  and 
revision. 


6  The  Philosophy  of  Education 

I.    THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

1[  I.   THE  PROBLEM  OF  PHILOSOPHY 

1.  Meaning  of  'philosophical  theory'  —  Human  experience 
as  the  material  of  philosophy. 

2.  Philosophy,  as  a  reflective  study  of  experience,  aims: 

(a)  to  give  a  comprehensive  view  of  reality  as  revealed  in 
experience.    This  element  of  universality,  of  unity  and  synthesis, 
is  perhaps  the  fundamental  characteristic  of  philosophy. 

(b)  to  furnish  a  systematic  interpretation  of  the  presupposi- 
tions of  human  experience.    The  sciences  assume  the  possibility  of 
real  knowledge :  philosophy,  as  theory  of  knowledge,  takes  upon 
itself  to  inquire  into  the  truth  of  such  an  assumption. 

(c)  to  become  an  art  of  life,  based  upon  scientific  principles. 

IT  II.   THE  RELATION  OF  THE  SCIENCES  TO  PHILOSOPHY 

1.  Historical  relations  —  Compared  as  to  subject-matter  and 
method  —  Philosophy  not  a  mere  aggregate  of  the  sciences :  rather 
the  organism  of  which  the  various  sciences  are  the  organs  —  Phi- 
losophy does  not  aim  so  much  to  bring  to  light  new  facts  as  to 
reveal  the  value  and  the   significant  connections   of  the   facts 
brought  to  light  by  the  various  sciences. 

2.  The  science  of  education,  for  example,  deals  with  the 
main  features  of  the  area  which  the  subject-matter  comprises: 
the  philosophy  deals  with  its  boundaries,  or  its  place  in  the  terri- 
tories of  knowledge.    The  science  of  education,  in  other  words, 
has  to  do  with  the  theory  of  education  as  isolated  by  itself:   the 
philosophy,  while  presupposing  the  science,  is  the  theory  of  the 
relations  of  education  to  other  sciences  and  to  the  known  world 
in  general. 

If  III.   THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF   EDUCATION 

1.  Three  divisions  of  philosophy:    philosophy   of  nature; 
philosophy  of  the  mind ;  philosophy  of  the  Absolute  —  The  phil- 
osophy of  education  as  part  of  the  philosophy  of  mind. 

2.  The  philosophy  of  education  aims : 

(a)    to  trace  the  significance  of  education  in  its  main  out- 


The  Philosophy  of  Education  7 

lines  as  a  conscious,  historical  effort  towards  human  evolution: 
in  other  words,  to  trace  the  relations  of  education  to  the  other 
activities  of  civilization. 

(b)  to  determine  the  meaning  and  purpose  of  the  educa- 
tional process  in  its  functional  relation  to  the  wider  intellectual 
and  social  process  of  the  present  and  to  the  general  process  of  life 
and  reality.     This  involves  an  inquiry  into  the  essential  nature 
of  the  logical  presuppositions  which  make  the  process  possible. 

3.  The  foundations  of  the  philosophy  of  education  are  found 
in: 

(a)  the  philosophy  of  mind,  as  it  is  revealed  in  the  history 
of  civilization  and  in  society  as  at  present  constituted. 

(&)  the  doctrine  of  evolution,  by  means  of  which  the  theory 
of  education  may  be  given  a  distinct  relationship  to  the  facts  of 
the  wider  organic  and  social  process. 

(c)  the  doctrine  of  idealism,  as  affording  a  standard  of 
interpretation  by  means  of  which  the  ethical   and   educational 
significance  of  the  processes  and  influences  of  the  civilization 
of  the  past  and  the  present  may  be  estimated. 

REFERENCES  : 

Of  Introductions  to  philosophy  any  one  of  the  following  would 
furnish  the  preparation  necessary  to  a  course  such  as  is  outlined 
in  the  present  syllabus :  Mackenzie,  Outlines  of  Metaphysics; 
Marvin,  Introduction  to  Philosophy;  Paulsen,  Introduction  to 
Philosophy;  Taylor,  Elements  of  Metaphysics;  Watson,  An  Out- 
line of  Philosophy.  The  more  important  sources  of  material  for 
the  philosophy  of  education  will  be  indicated  in  connection  with 
the  respective  chapters.  The  various  lists  make  no  pretension  to 
completeness.  A  few  of  the  works  which  would  naturally  form 
the  nucleus  of  source-material  are  the  following:  Alexander, 
Moral  Order  and  Progress;  Aristotle,  Ethics,  and  Politics;  Bald- 
win, Mental  Development,  I-II,  also,  Development  and  Evolu- 
tion; Bosanquet,  The  Psychology  of  the  Moral  Self,  also,  The 
Philosophical  Theory  of  the  State;  Bryant,  Educational  Ends; 
Butler,  Meaning  of  Education;  Caird,  The  Social  Philosophy  of 
Comte;  Davidson,  A  History  of  Education;  Dewey,  School  and 
Society;  Green,  Prolegomena  to  Ethics;  Harris,  Psychologic 
Foundations  of  Education;  Hobhouse,  The  Theory  of  Knowledge, 
also,  Mind  in  Evolution;  Hoffding,  History  of  Modern  Phi- 
losophy; Home,  The  Philosophy  of  Education;  Mackenzie,  Intro- 
duction to  Social  Philosophy;  Mtinsterberg,  Psychology  and  Life; 
Nettleship,  Lectures  on  Plato's  Republic;  O'Shea,  Education  as 
Adjustment;  Paulsen,  A  System  of  Ethics;  Plato,  Republic; 


8  The  Philosophy  of  Education 

Rosenkranz,  Philosophy  of  Education;  Royce,  The  World  and 
the  Individual;  Spencer,  Sociology;  Stout,  Analytic  Psychology; 
Ward,  Naturalism  and  Agnosticism;  Windelband,  A  History  of 
Philosophy;  Wundt,  Ethics,  I-III. 

FURTHER  PROBLEMS  FOR  STUDY: 

1.  The  need  of  a  philosophical  basis  for  educational  theory. 

2.  The  historical  relations  of  philosophy  and  the  sciences. 

3.  Educational  theory  as  influenced  by  special  sciences. 

4.  The    philosophy    of    education    as    a    criticism    of    educational 
categories. 

5.  Problems   of  philosophy   or   education   in   their   relation   to   the 
social  consciousness  of  a  period. 


II.     THE  PHILOSOPHICAL  BASES  OF  EDUCATION- 
EVOLUTION  AND   IDEALISM 

fllV.   EVOLUTION  AS  A  WORKING  HYPOTHESIS 

1.  The  idea  of  evolution  is  the  largest  generalization  yet 
made  in  scientific  views  of  the  world  and  is  the  dominating  idea 
in  the  intellectual  life  of  the  present.    Educational  theory  has  so 
far  remained  almost  unaffected  by  the  evolutionary  method  of 
study,  and  this  for  two  reasons:     (a)  the  naturally  conservative 
character  of  education,  and  (&)  the  influence  of  inherited  educa- 
tional doctrine.    At  the  present  time,  however,  a  reconstruction 
of  the  theory  of  education  in  the  light  of  the  evolutionary  method 
is  coming  to  be  recognized  as  both  inevitable  and  desirable. 

2.  As  a  working  hypothesis  evolution  maintains   (a)   that 
the  changes  going  on  throughout  the  universe  are  not  chaotic 
or  unrelated  but  follow  an  intelligible  course  from  one  state  of 
things    toward    another,    and    (&)    more    particularly    that   the 
course  which  they  follow  is  one  of  differentiation  and  integration. 
The  two  most  impressive   inductions    (from  another  point  of 
view  they  are  its  presuppositions)  from  the  evolutionary  method 
of  study  are,  first,  the  continuity  of  existence,  the  organic  oneness 
of  all  things  in  spite  of  the  great  contrasts  in  the  spheres  of 
mechanism,  chemism,  organism  and  spirit ;  second,  that  existence, 
so  far  as  we  know  it  in  nature  and  mind,  is  dynamic,  in  a  continual 
process  of  becoming.    In  the  syllabus,  then,  evolution  is  accepted 
as  a  working  hypothesis.    It  is  presupposed  that  the  natural  and 


The  Philosophical  Bases  of  Education  9 

social  orders  are  parts  of  one  organic  process,  and,  in  some  way 
or  other,  form  one  cosmos.  Man's  living  nature,  therefore,  is 
related  to  the  nature  of  all  life.  In  thus  making  man  in  his  entire 
nature  subject  to  evolutionary  law  an  advantage  is  presented  to 
the  cause  of  education.  Man  is  viewed  as  the  outcome  of  the 
creative  process  of  the  world,  and  education  becomes  the  last 
and  highest  form  of  evolution. 

3.  The  basis  of  the  educational  process  in  organic  and  social 
evolution.  Is  there  anything  in  the  process  of  education  as  a 
fact  of  our  experience  by  means  of  which  educational  theory  may 
be  brought  into  definite  relationship  with  the  facts  of  organic 
and  social  evolution? 

(a)  In  man  as  compared  with  the  lower  animals  there  is 
found  (i)  a  more  completely  organized  nervous  system,  (ii)  a 
more  complex  psychical  life,   (iii)   a  corresponding  lengthening 
of  the  period  of  infancy.     An  adequate  interpretation  of  the 
meaning  of  infancy  was  not  forthcoming  prior  to  the  rise  of  the 
doctrine  of  evolution  as  a  scientific  method. 

(b)  The  presuppositions  of  the  life  process  in  organic  and 
social  evolution  are  organism  and  environment.    In  both  spheres 
the  life-process  is  a  process  of  adapting  the  organism   to  its 
environment. 

(c)  Education,  in  its  widest  sense,  is  a  process  of  adaptation, 
made  possible  and  necessary  because  of  the  period  of  infancy  in 
the  individual,  and  in  this  way  has  formed  an  integral  part  of 
organic  and  social  evolution.    The  lengthening  of  the  period  of 
infancy  renders  education  at  once  possible  and  imperative. 

flV.   IDEALISM   AS   A   PRINCIPLE   OF  INTERPRETATION   IN 
NATURE  AND  HISTORY 

I.  Judgments  of  fact  and  judgments  of  worth  as  integral 
elements  in  the  process  of  intelligence  —  The  danger  arising  from 
confusion  of  standards  at  the  present  time  —  According  to  the 
view  advanced  in  the  preceding  section  the  law  of  evolution  is 
recognized  as  a  universal  method  of  nature,  of  which  man  in  his 
entire  being  is  the  highest  and  final  product.  It  is  important  to 
recognize,  however,  that  evolution,  strictly  interpreted,  merely 
asserts  that  the  universal  state  of  all  things  is  one  of  change  or 
becoming,  and  that  this  change  takes  place  in  accordance  with 


io  The  Philosophy  of  Education 

rational  law.  In  other  words,  it  is  a  law  or  method  according  to 
which  a  particular  reality  manifests  itself:  it  does  not  attempt  to 
furnish  information  concerning  the  ultimate  nature  of  that  reality. 
For  evolution  the  question  is  one  of  fact  primarily,  not  one  of 
worth.  Educational  theory,  however,  being  normative  in  its 
character,  implies  an  estimation  of  reality.  Is  it  possible  to 
establish  any  relation  between  '  development '  and  '  essential 
nature '  ?  Evolution  is  the  process  of  the  world's  '  becoming.' 
Does  the  acceptance  of  evolution,  or  the  process-view,  as  a  prin- 
ciple of  explanation  leave  us  with  the  mere  change  of  Heraclitus, 
or  are  there  any  fixed  limits  within  which  the  Becoming  moves? 
(Compare  the  problems  to  which  the  opposition  between  the 
process-view  of  Heraclitus  and  the  permanence-view  of  Par- 
menides  gave  rise.)  Are  the  '  facts '  of  evolution  merely  provi- 
sional ?  Idealism  maintains  that  '  evolution '  is  a  process  to  be 
explained,  not  itself  an  explanation. 

2.  The  theory  of  evolution  is  an  assertion  of  the  unity  of  life. 
For  it  a  thing  out  of  relation  is  not  a  thing  at  all.    Every  existing 
thing  is  determined  to  be  what  it  is  by  its  relation  to  other  things. 
Any  existing  thing  is  a  stage  in  a  process  of  relationing.     To 
know  one  thing  completely  would  imply  a  knowledge  of  the  entire 
world  of  possible  experience.     This  position  idealism  accepts ; 
but,  in  addition,  it  maintains  that  existence  (as  a  system  of  things 
in  relations)   means  existence  for  some  consciousness.     Reality 
as  a  continual  process  exists  for  a  conscious  subject.     To  speak 
of  a  real  object,  or  matter,  existing  apart  from  all  or  any  con- 
sciousness involves  us  at  once  in  self-contradiction.    This  is  the 
first  fixed  term  or  limit  which  idealism  sets  to  evolution. 

3.  Idealism,  further,  attempting  to  take  into  account  all  the 
facts  of  consciousness  (among  which  unquestionably  are  judg- 
ments of  worth,  as  well  as  judgments  of  fact),  maintains  that  the 
true  nature  of  any  process  is  to  be  found  only  in  the  final  form 
which  it  assumes.     In  their  interpretation  of  this  conception  lies 
the  importance  of  the  contribution  of  Aristotle  and  Hegel  to  the 
philosophy  of  evolution.    Evolution  attempts  to  explain  in    terms 
of  the  antecedent,  merely.    According  to  the  idealistic  view  the 
true  nature  of  the  cause  becomes  apparent  only  in  the  effect. 
Ultimate  explanation  must  look  to  the  end  of  the  process.    This, 
then,  is  a  second  limitation  set  upon  evolution  as  final  explanation. 

The  principle  of  evolution  in  its  explanation  of  the  world- 


The  Philosophical  Bases  of  Education  n 

process  marks  off  the  four  fairly  well-defined  stages,  the  cosmical, 
the  chemical,  the  organic,  and  the  rational.  Le  Conte  describes 
evolution  through  these  several  stages,  as  "  continuous  progress- 
ive change  according  to  certain  laws  and  by  means  of  resident 
forces."  In  this  conception  it  will  be  noted  (a)  that  the  evolu- 
tionist regards  the  world  as  a  unity  which  has  within  it  the  princi- 
ple of  self-development,  and  (6)  that  this  unity  gives  rise  to  new 
forms  of  reality.  Reality  then  is  an  organic  system  containing 
within  itself  its  own  principle  of  development  —  a  principle  of 
development  or  activity,  which,  while  retaining  its  identity,  origi- 
nates new  and  qualitatively  distinct  forms  of  energy,  culminat- 
ing in  the  self-conscious  activity  of  man.  Evolution,  finding  its 
last  and  highest  form  in  the  progress  of  man,  is  not  therefore  the 
emergence  of  something  out  of  nothing,  but  the  manifestation  of 
that  which  from  another  point  of  view  eternally  is. 

On  the  basis  of  this  ontological  construction  of  evolution, 
namely,  that  existence  means  existence  for  some  consciousness, 
and  that  the  final  standard  of  worth  is  found  in  the  final  stage 
of  the  process,  it  is  assumed  that  the  process  of  Reality  as  we 
find  it  in  experience  is  the  gradual  manifestation  of  a  living,  self- 
determining  Spirit,  creative  in  nature  and  in  the  human  life  of 
man,  not  different  in  kind  from  the  human  consciousness  in  which 
it  manifests  itself  most  fully.  (Compare  Spencer's  statement 
found  in  Principles  of  Sociology,  §  659 :  '  Consequently,  the  final 
outcome  of  that  speculation  commenced  by  primitive  man,  is  that 
the  Power  manifested  throughout  the  Universe  distinguished  as 
material,  is  the  same  Power  which  in  ourselves  wells  up  under  the 
form  of  consciousness  ' ;  also  Huxley's  statement  in  Evolution  and 
Morality,  p.  35 :  'In  man  there  lies  a  fund  of  energy,  operating 
intelligently  and  so  far  akin  to  that  which  pervades  the  universe 
that  it  is  competent  to  influence  and  modify  the  cosmic  process.') 

There  are  various  ways,  of  course,  in  which  the  relation  of 
the  individual  life  to  this  Spiritual  Principle  may  be  conceived. 
Three  may  be  noted:  (a)  the  monistic  type,  represented  by 
Spinoza,  (&)  the  monadistic  type,  represented  by  Leibnitz,  (c)  the 
organic  type,  represented  by  Aristotle  and  Hegel.  The  Organic 
conception,  recognizing  the  demand  of  intelligence  to  see  in  the 
world  a  real  unity  of  elements,  and  of  the  moral  nature  for  some 
relative  independence  of  the  elements  within  the  unity,  seems 
to  do  fuller  justice  than  either  of  the  others  to  the  facts  as  well 


12  The  Philosophy  of  Education 

as  the  needs  of  life.  The  philosophical  basis,  then,  on  which  the 
doctrine  of  the  syllabus  rests  is  that  of  an  idealistic  monism  — 
the  monism  which  recognizes  a  spiritual  principle  revealed  in 
nature  and  in  human  life:  in  that  common  reason  of  humanity 
to  which  nature  is  organic,  which  unites  mankind  and  is  the 
ultimate  source  of  that  upward  movement  which  constitutes 
human  progress. 

flVI.   CERTAIN    IMPLICATIONS    OF    THE    IDEALISTIC    CON- 
STRUCTION OF  EVOLUTION 

Philosophical  interpretation  begins  with  facts  vitally  related 
in  experience  and  attempts  to  discover  their  implications.  To 
indicate  the  significance  for  the  theory  of  education  of  the  two 
hypotheses,  evolution  and  idealism,  is  the  task  of  subsequent 
sections.  In  the  present  connection  it  is  necessary  to  indicate 
some  of  the  more  important  implications  of  the  general  interpre- 
tation of  experience  advanced  in  the  preceding  section. 

1.  An  analogy  from  a  lower  order  of  existence  is  an  insuf- 
ficient explanation  of  a  higher  order  of  existence.     (Compare  the 
phrases  '  mental  assimilation/  '  organic  function/  '  society  as  an 
organism/  'adjustment  to  environment/  etc.}     The  higher  as 
the  more  perfectly  realized  existence  interprets  the  lower,  (i.  e.,  the 
incomplete  and  imperfect  existence,)  by  showing  the  purpose  of 
the  latter.     It  is  important,  further,  to  distinguish  between  the 
origin  of  an  institution,  and  its  validity  or  worth.     The  ethical 
significance  of  the  family,  for  example,  at  the  present  time  is  not 
affected  by  its  origin.    This  is  true  also  of  the  other  institutions, 
and  of  art,  morality  and  religion. 

2.  If  in  social  evolution  is  found  the  last  and  highest  mani- 
festation of  the  Principle  which  is  at  work  in  the  world,  philosophy 
must  gain  the  materials  for  its  account  of  the  nature  of  Reality 
for  the  most  part  in  the  social  and  ethical  life  of  man. 

3.  Man  apart  from  nature  becomes  an  unreal  abstraction. 
The  world  without  and  the  world  within  are  not  two  separated 
worlds,  but  are  necessary  counterparts  of  each  other.     Nature, 
accordingly,  cannot  be  treated  as  a  mere  mechanism.     Since  the 
world  cannot  be  defined  apart  from  mind,  it  is  plastic  to  mind: 
it  is  virtually  what  the  mind  makes  of  it.     It  has  ministered  to 
mind  as  a  means  of  expression.    It  is  plastic  to  man  as  Reason. 


The  Philosophical  Bases  of  Education  13, 

Civilization  is  a  witness  to  the  correspondence  between  the  course 
of  nature  and  the  mind  of  man ;  a  witness  also  to  the  adaptation  of 
nature  to  the  education  of  human  intelligence.  In  their  larger 
significance  nature  and  civilization  are  phases  of  one  spiritual 
movement. 

4.  Evolution  and  Idealism  together  find  in  the  movement 
towards  completer  individualization  (through  differentiation  and 
integration)   a  principle  of  interpretation  for  the  organic  and 
social  processes.     This  principle  of  individuality  must  occupy  a 
central  position  in  any  interpretation  of  social  evolution.    The  true 
nature  of  the  human  individual  consists  in  a  process  through 
which  he  comes  to  be  what  in  '  idea '  he  is.     Education  has  its 
center  in  personality. 

5.  On  the  other  hand,  since  on  the  idealistic  theory  the  world 
in  its  completeness  is  the  manifestation  of  a  meaning  or  purpose 
in  a  life,  the  ideal  of  the  individual  must  move  within  the  limits 
of  that  larger  order  which  is  working  itself  out  in  the  world. 

REFERENCES  : 

(a)  Concerning  the  doctrine  of  Evolution,  —  Baldwin,  Development 
and  Evolution,  also,  Dictionary  of  Philosophy  and  Psychology; 
Clodd,  Primer  of  Evolution;  Cope,  Primary  Factors  of  Organic 
Evolution;  Darwin,  Origin  of  Species;  Huxley,  Evolution  and 
Ethics;  Osborne,  From  the  Greeks  to  Darwin;  Royce,  The  Spirit 
of  Modern  Philosophy;  Spencer,  First  Principles. 

(&)  For  materials  concerning  the  interpretation  of  the  meaning  of 
infancy  outlined  above,  consult,  Butler,  '  Anaximander  on  the  Pro- 
longation of  Infancy  in  Man/  in  Classical  Studies  in  Honor  of 
Henry  Drisler,  also,  Meaning  of  Education,  pp.  3-34;  Chamber- 
lain, The  Child,  pp.  1-9;  Drummond,  Ascent  of  Man;  Fiske,  Out- 
lines of  Cosmic  Philosophy,  II,  chs.  16,  21,  22;  Destiny  of  Man, 
PP-  35-76,  also,  Through  Nature  to  God;  Tyler,  The  Whence  and 
Whither  of  Man. 

(c)  Concerning  the  doctrine  of  Idealism,  —  Bradley,  Appearance  and 
Reality;  Caird  (E)  art.  "Metaphysics"  in  Encyclopedia  Britan- 
nica,  also,  Social  Philosophy  of  Comte;  Caird  (J),  Philosophy  of 
Religion;  Eraser,  Philosophy  of  Theism;  Green,  Prolegomena  to 
Ethics;  Haldane,  The  Pathway  to  Reality;  Howison,  The  Limits 
of  Evolution;  McTaggart,  Studies  in  Hegelian  Cosmology;  Mel- 
lone,  Philosophical  Criticism  and  Construction;  Paulsen,  Intro- 
duction to  Philosophy;  Ritchie,  Darwin  and  Hegel;  Royce,  The 
World  and  the  Individual;  Schiller,  Humanism;  Schurman,  Ethical 
Import  of  Darwinism;  Sorley,  Ethics  of  Naturalism;  Sturt,  Per- 
sonal Idealism;  Taylor,  Elements  of  Metaphysics;  Ward,  Natural- 
ism and  Agnosticism;  Watson,  Christianity  and  Idealism. 


14  The  Philosophy  of  Education 

FURTHER  PROBLEMS  FOR  STUDY: 

1.  The  relation  between  the  natural  and  the  social  order. 

2.  Is  education  a  natural  science? 

3.  The    categories    of    potentiality,    purpose,    change,    individuality, 
activity. 

4.  '  Origin '  and  '  validity '  in  ethics  and  education. 

5.  Implications  of  the  educational  process. 


III.     PHILOSOPHY  OF  THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

1TVII.   THE    PHILOSOPHY   OF   HISTORY 

In  attempting  to  discover  an  answer  to  the  question,  What 
is  the  life  of  man?  Plato  says  that  it  is  not  best  to  begin  with  the 
study  of  the  life  of  an  individual  man,  but  first  of  all  to  look  at 
human  nature  where  it  can  be  seen  on  a  large  scale,  or  "  writ 
large,"  as  he  says,  in  the  broad  outlines  of  history  and  human 
society.  In  history  is  to  be  found  the  growing  realization  of  that 
system  of  life  which  is  proper  to  true  human  nature.  To  history 
we  must  have  recourse  for  the  method  of  spiritual  evolution,  con- 
ceived as  a  system.  The  present  section  attempts  to  sketch  in 
barest  outlines  a  methodology  such  as  will  furnish  our  third  educa- 
tional foundation. 

1.  Historical  theories:  three  types,  (a)  indeterministic  type, 
(&)  biological  type,  (c)  teleological  type. 

2.  Reasons   for  accepting  the  teleological  view:      (a)    the 
adaptation  of  environment  to  personality;  (&)  without  the  tend- 
ency to  self-maintenance  and  race-maintenance  there  is  no  '  strug- 
gle   for   existence,'    (c)    the   tendency   to   organization    implies 
purpose  —  The   apparent   antagonism   between    nature   and   the 
moral  life  —  Civilization  as  the  last,  complex,  but  orderly  and 
purposeful  phase  in  the  evolution  of  life  —  Through  history  the 
unfolding  of  a  moral  purpose  and  the  progress  of  a  spiritual 
discipline. 

3.  Man  and  nature  —  Man  as  the  interpretation  and  inter- 
preter of  nature  —  Nature  as  intelligible  and  man  intelligent  — 
The  natural  conditions  of  life  —  Development  of  the  feeling  for 
nature  —  The  religion  of  nature. 

4.  '  Activity '  as  the  fundamental  datum  in  individual  and 
race  psychology  — '  Action '  as  a  fundamental  category  of  his- 
torical synthesis  — '  Social '  experience  —  Society  as  a  medium 


Philosophy  of  the  History  of  Education  15 

for  the  communication  and  transmission  of  experience  —  The 
gradual  projection  of  social  tendencies  into  social  ideals  —  Social 
heredity  through  (a)  tradition,  (b)  education  —  Growth  of  ex- 
perience through  (a)  increase  in  its  objective  content,  (b)  the 
number  of  its  cognizers. 

If  VIII.    THE  '  CONTENT '  OF  CIVILIZATION 

In  the  following  analysis  of  the  more  important  elements  of 
civilization,  the  attempt  is  made  to  indicate  such  as  have  been  (a) 
persistent,  (b)  cultural,  i.  e.,  distinguishing  man  from  the  animals, 
(c)  of  service  in  enabling  man  to  progress  independently  of  mere 
heredity  and  natural  selection.  Civilization  has  its  basis  in  the 
active  moulding  of  his  environment  by  man  in  the  interests  of 
human  life  —  The  gradual  transition  from  the  moulding  of  nature 
to  the  moulding  of  mind  —  Property  —  Invention  of  tools  — 
Means  of  communication  —  Education. 

Civilization,  then,  as  a  progressive  articulation  and  realization 
of  human  nature,  implies : 

1.  Science,  as  Knowledge  and  as  Instrument  of  ControL 
The  subjugation  of  nature  through  work,  observation,  invention 
and  cooperation  —  The  significance  of  productive  industry  in  de- 
termining social  structure,  the  primary  culture  manifestations,  and 
religious  ideas  —  The  sciences  as  the  methods  of  controlling  the 
processes    of   social   life  —  Their    significance    in   the    material, 
intellectual  and  ethical  life  of  man. 

2.  Language.    In  the  history  of  the  race  language  performs 
a  two-fold  function:     (a)  it  makes  classification  of  experiences 
and  reasoning  possible,  and  thus,  science,  philosophy  and  history, 
and  (b)  it  provides  a  means  for  the  distribution  and  transmission 
of  experience. 

3.  Art  and  Literature.    Nature  and  art  —  Art  and  science  — 
The  nature  sense  in  art  and  literature  —  Art  as  a  social  phenome- 
non and  a  social  function  —  The  element  of  idealism  in  common 
life  —  Art  as  an  expression  of  popular   feelings  and   ideals  — 
Judgments  of  worth  —  Art  as  liberating  and  deepening  human 
experience  —  The  element  of  nationality  in  art  —  Art  and  religion 
—  Art  and  literature  as  factors  in  social  evolution. 

4.  Social  and  Political  Institutions.     The  conception  of  a 
'  state  of  nature  '  —  The  theory  of  '  natural '  rights  —  Is  mor- 


16  The  Philosophy  of  Education 

ality  the  basis  of  law,  or  law  of  morality  ?  —  The  relation  of  cus- 
tom to  law  and  morality  —  The  systematization  of  custom  — 
What  determines  rights  —  Society  as  maker  of  '  values  '  —  Jus- 
tice—  The  function  of  institutions  in  the  distribution  and  trans- 
mission of  the  spiritual  possessions  of  society. 

5.  Religion.  Religious  influence  of  the  natural  world  — 
Nature  and  social  life  as  sources  of  religious  ideas  —  Definition  of 
religions  in  terms  of  their  common  principle  rather  than  in  terms 
of  their  content  —  Essential  unity  of  the  religious  principle  — 
Stages  in  the  development  of  the  religious  consciousness  —  Re- 
ligion as  a  social  phenomenon  —  Historical  relations  of  religion 
and  morality  —  The  ethical  movement  in  religion. 

fIX.   MODERN  CIVILIZATION  AS  AFFECTED  BY  THE  CIVIL- 
IZATIONS OF  GREECE,  ROME  AND  JUDEA 

1.  The  Greek  Vieiv  of  Life.    The  ideal  of  individual  free- 
dom in  thought  and  action  —  The  regulative  principle  in  Greek 
life  —  The  discovery  of  method  in  thought  and  action  —  Greek 
.science  and  philosophy  —  Art  and  idealism  in  Greek  life  —  The 
moral  element  in  Greek  culture  —  Contribution  to  the  theory  of 
'education  and  culture. 

2.  Roman  Life  and  Character.     The  characteristic  Roman 
virtues  —  The  discipline  of  the  will  through  law  and  order  — 
Roman  imperialism  —  The  Roman  humanitas  —  The  preparation 
•of  the  world  and  the  preparation  of  the  spirit. 

3.  Judaism  and  Christianity.    The  natural  and  the  spiritual 
—  The  unity  and  spirituality  of  God  —  The  Hebrew  sense  of  sin 
a  higher  idealism  than  that  of  Greece  and  Rome  —  The  concep- 
tion of  personality  —  The  new  synthesis  —  The  Christian  view  of 
human  nature  —  Christianity  as  a  religion  of  reconciliation  and 
adjustment  —  Christianity  and  the  ideal  of  service  —  The  social 
conscience  and  the  social  problem  as  outcome  of  Christianity  — 
Hebraism  —  Hellenism  —  Humanism. 

f  X.  THE  THEORY  OF  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION 

i.  The  theory  assumes:  (a)  the  unity  of  mankind;  (&)  a 
development  of  man  —  Advantage  of  the  theory  —  The  unity  of 
mankind  manifesting  itself  in  an  organic  process  of  development 


Philosophy  of  the  History  of  Education  17 

—  The  fact  of  social  heredity  —  The  common  intellectual  life  of 
humanity  —  The  evolution  of  morality  —  How  the  history  of 
man's  development  throws  light  upon  the  individual  life  —  The 
ethics  of  the  individual  life  in  relation  to  the  ethics  of  the  social 
whole  —  Progressive  character  of  moral  ideals  —  Man  as  the 
educable  animal  —  Self-consciousness  —  Social  evolution  through 
conscious  selection  —  Education  as  '  conscious  '  evolution,  the 
last  and  highest  phase  of  the  evolutionary  process  —  The  trans- 
mission of  the  spiritual  possessions  of  the  race. 

2.  The  postulates  of  Idealistic  Ethics.  The  moral  ideal, 
while  dependent  on  social  relations,  is  not,  ultimately,  their  prod- 
uct —  The  metaphysical  ground  of  social  union  or  community. 

H  XL   THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

The  aim  of  a  philosophy  of  the  history  of  education  is  two- 
fold: (a)  to  indicate  the  unity  and  continuity  of  the  educational 
process  with  the  wider  social  process,  and  (b)  to  trace  the  parallel- 
ism between  educational  theory  and  general  philosophical  theory. 
The  educational  problem  is  always  a  social  outcome.  In  like 
manner  the  dominating  philosophical  thought  of  a  period  has  a 
formative  influence  in  its  educational  theory.  In  many  instances, 
of  course,  this  influence  has  been  greater  in  proportion  as  it  was 
unconscious  and  indirect.  It  was,  nevertheless,  just  as  inevitable. 

1.  Typical  forms  of  educational  thought  and  practice  as  ex- 
pressions of  the  wider  social  life:    (a)  Chinese  life  and  education; 
(&)  Athenian  life  and  education  ;  (c)  Theory  of  life  and  education 
during  the  Middle  Ages;  (rf)  Effect  of  separation  of  church  and 
state  on  education;  (e)  National  education  and  the  social  ideals 
of  the  present. 

2.  Types  of  the  parallelism  between  philosophical  theory  and 
educational    theory:      (a)     The    ethical    individualism    of    the 
Sophists ;  (£)  The  philosophical  and  educational  theories  of  Plato ; 
(c)  The  principle  of  authority  in  relation  to  Mediaeval  education; 
(rf)  The  Cartesian  dualism  and  the  separation  of  subject-matter 
and  method;  (e)  The  solutions  of  Empiricism  and  Rationalism; 
(/)  The  individualism  of  Rousseau  and  education  '  according  to 
nature';  (g)  Results  of  the  Kantian  criticism;  (7t)  The  dualism 
between  subject-matter  and  method  in  present  educational  theory. 


18  The  Philosophy  of  Education 

REFERENCES  : 

(a)  Concerning  the  general  concept  of  civilization,  consult,  Sonar, 
Philosophy  and  Political  Economy;  Buckle,  History  of  Civiliza- 
tion; Caird,  Evolution  of  Religion;  Crozier,  History  of  Intellec- 
tual Development,  also,  Civilization  and  Progress;  Draper,  Intel- 
lectual Development  of  Europe;  Droysen,  The  Principles  of 
History;  Dunning,  A  History  of  Political  Theories;  Fairbairn, 
The  Philosophy  of  the  Christian  Religion;  Flint,  History  of  the 
Philosophy  of  History;  Guizot,  History  of  Civilization;  Hegel, 
Philosophy  of  History;  Kidd,  Principles  of  Western  Civilization; 
Le  Bon,  The  Psychology  of  Peoples;  Lecky,  History  of  European 
Morals;  Lotze,  Microcosmus;  Merz,  History  of  European  Thought; 
Pearson,  The  Grammar  of  Science;  Spencer,  Sociology;  Temple, 
Essays  and  Reviews;  Tiele,  Elements  of  the  Science  of  Religion; 
Wake,  The  Evolution  of  Morality;  Ward,  The  Psychic  Factors  of 
Civilization;  Wedgwood,  The  Moral  Ideal. 

(&)  On  the  contributions  to  civilization  of  Greece,  Rome  and  Judea, 
consult,  Butcher,  Some  Aspects  of  the  Greek  Genius;  Caird,  The 
Evolution  of  Theology  in  the  Greek  Philosophers;  Campbell,  Greek 
Religion;  De  Coulange,  The  Ancient  City;  Forrest,  The  Christ  of 
History  and  of  Experience;  Fowler,  The  City  State;  Gardner, 
Exploratio  Evangelica;  Gill,  Roman  Society  in  the  Last  Century  of 
the  Empire;  Hatch,  The  Influence  of  Greek  Ideas  upon  the  Chris- 
tian Church;  Kuenan,  Judaism  and  Christianity;  Mahaffy,  Greek 
Life;  Mommsen,  History  of  Rome;  Pater,  Plato  and  Platonism; 
Renan,  Influence  of  Rome  on  Christianity;  Taylor,  Ancient  Ideals; 
Toy,  Judaism  and  Christianity;  Watson,  Christianity  and  Idealism; 
Zeller,  History  of  Greek  Philosophy. 

(c~)  On  social  evolution,  consult,  Alexander,  Moral  Order  and  Prog- 
ress; Baldwin,  Development  and  Evolution;  Kidd,  Social  Evolution; 
Macintosh,  From  Comte  to  Benjamin  Kidd;  Nash,  Genesis  of  the 
Social  Conscience;  Ritchie,  Darwin  and  Hegel;  Schurman,  The 
Ethical  Import  of  Darwinism;  Sorley,  Ethics  of  Naturalism; 
Stephen,  A  Science  of  Ethics;  Wallace,  Lectures  and  Essays  on 
Natural  Theology  and  Ethics;  Williams,  Evolution  and  Ethics. 

(d)  On  the  philosophy  of  the  history  of  education,  consult,  Aristotle, 
Ethics;  Bacon,  Novum  Organum;  Buchner,  Kant's  Educational 
Theory;  Comenius,  The  Great  Didactic;  Davidson,  A  History  of 
Education,  also,  The  Education  of  the  Greek  People;  Froebel, 
Education  of  Man;  Goethe,  Wilhelm  Meister;  Herbart,  The  Science 
of  Education;  a  Kempis,  The  Imitation  of  Christ;  Nettleship,  Lec- 
tures on  the  Republic  of  Plato;  Paulsen,  Historical  Development 
of  the  Universities  of  Germany;  Pestalozzi,  How  Gertrude  teaches 
her  Children;  Plato,  Republic;  Quintilian,  Institutes  of  Oratory; 
Rabelais,  Life  of  Gargantua;  Rashdall,  Universities  in  Europe  in 
the  Middle  Ages;  Rousseau,  Emile;  Royce,  The  Spirit  of  Modern 
Philosophy. 


The  Presuppositions  of  Education  19 

FURTHER  PROBLEMS  FOR  STUDY: 

1.  Education  and  the  national  tradition. 

2.  Nationality  as  an  element  in  the  evolution  of  education. 

3.  The  influence  of  religious  ideas  in  the  development  of  institutions. 

4.  Theories  of  knowledge  in  relation  to  educational  theory. 

5.  The  permanent  elements  of  civilization. 

6.  Greek  civilization  and  the  discovery  of  *  method.' 

7.  Plato's  educational  theory  as  an  outcome  of  his  social  philosophy. 

8.  The  psychological  basis  of  Aristotle's  educational  theory. 

9.  Scholasticism  as  a  preparation  for  the  Renaissance. 

10.   The  influence  of  historical  systems  of  philosophy  on  educational 
theory. 

IV.     THE    PRESUPPOSITIONS  OF  EDUCATION  —  PERSON- 
ALITY AND  ENVIRONMENT 

flXII.    PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION  AS  A  CRITIQUE  OF  EDU- 
CATIONAL PRESUPPOSITIONS 

Education  is  one  element  within  experience.  As  a  fact  of 
experience  it  is  concerned  with  the  relation  of  an  individual  to  his 
environment.  In  a  philosophy  of  education  it  is  not  sufficient 
merely  to  assume  the  possibility  of  the  educational  process :  some 
account  must  be  given  of  the  necessities  of  thought  prior  to  and 
presupposed  in  that  process.  In  order  to  answer  the  question, 
'  What  ought  education  to  aim  at  ? '  the  prior  question,  '  What 
is  a  person,  both  in  himself  and  in  his  environment?'  must  be 
dealt  with.  What,  then,  does  the  mind  do  ?  What  is  the  method 
of  its  operation?  What  is  the  ultimate  nature  of  the  material 
operated  upon  ?  What  are  the  mutual  relations  of  personality  and 
environment  ? 

ffXIII.   PERSONALITY    AS    A    PRESUPPOSITION    OF    EDUCA- 
TION 

The  outline  of  a  doctrine  of  personality  which  follows  is 
based  upon  three  points  of  view  :  (a)  experience  an  organic  unity; 
(b)  the  functional  view  of  mind ;  (c)  the  social  origin  of  the  dis- 
tinction between  the  self  and  not-self. 

i.  Experience  as  an  organic  unity.  It  is,  perhaps,  most  satis- 
factory to  approach  the  question  through  a  consideration  of  sev- 
eral typical  statements  of  the  nature  of  mind  and  its  relation  to 
the  outer  world: 


2O  The  Philosophy  of  Education 

(a)  The  Cartesian  conception  of  mind,  according  to  which 
consciousness  and  matter  are  absolute  disparates.     The  world, 
or  nature,  is  the  opposite  of  mind;  so  far  as  its  own  structure  is 
concerned,  neither  embodying  nor  reflecting  intelligence.     Criti- 
cism of  the  Cartesian  position. 

(b)  Leibnitz's  view  of  mind,  a  reaction  against  (i)  Dualism, 
and  (ii)  Empiricism.    According  to  this  view  the  material  world  is 
a  gradual  evolution  in  consciousness.    The  mind's  knowledge  does 
not  come  to  it  from  without,  since,  fundamentally,  it  cannot  be 
influenced  by  any  other  substance.     Educational  implications  — 
Criticism. 

(c)  The  result  of  the  Kantian  analysis.     The  fundamental 
significance  of  the  '  Critical '  theory  of  knowledge  consisted  in 
its  attempt  to  mediate  between  the  extreme  position  of  Empiricism 
and  Dualism  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  Rationalism  on  the  other, 
—  in  other  words,  to  show  that  in  the  development  or  creation 
of  the  mind,  involution  is  as  necessary  as  evolution.    According  to 
Kant's  view  the  natural  system  of  objects  (matter)  is  one  element 
in  a  spiritual  system  of  experience  which  includes  and  transcends 
it.    The  fact  that  the  mind  comes  to  itself  through  a  consciousness 
of  the  external  world  would  indicate  that  this  very  consciousness 
of  the  externality  of  things  is  itself  an  element  in  the  spiritual 
unity  of  the  world.    In  other  words,  in  order  to  attain  any  valid 
explanation  of  knowledge  or  experience,  Kant  insists  upon  the 
organic  relation  between  mind  and  matter,  intelligence  and  the 
world.     The  outcome  of  his  criticism,  then,  is  this:      Neither 
matter  nor  mind  are  ready-made,  self-existing  entities,  isolable 
from  each  other.    The  mind  is  not  something  equipped  with  facul- 
ties to  appropriate  the  world:  nor  is  the  world  preexisting  and 
all  prepared  to  be  appropriated.     Both  the  mind  and  the  world 
are  the  outcome  of  a  unitary  process,  and  only  when  we  isolate 
through  abstraction  the  terminal  aspects  of  that  process,  and  for- 
get its  unitary  character,  do  we  have  the  dualism  of  mind  and 
matter,  intelligence  and  the  world.    The  argument  may  be  stated 
in  slightly  different  form.    Kant  held  that  the  natural  system  of 
objects  is  one  element  in  a  spiritual  system  of  experience  which 
includes   and   transcends    it.      In    other   words,    the    '  objective 
world '  may  be  regarded  as  the  environment  in  which  the  self 
realizes  itself.     It  is  interesting  to  compare  this  epistemological 
doctrine  with  the   Spencerian   doctrine  of  life.     According  to 


The  Presuppositions  of  Education  21 

Spencer  the  life-process  is  one  through  which  an  individual  main- 
tains its  identity  in  change  by  means  of  an  external  (so-called) 
environment  which  makes  the  change  necessary.  In  both  the 
psychical  and  the  biological  process  the  '  environment '  is  rela- 
tive to  the  nature  of  the  individual  environed.  In  neither  case, 
therefore,  can  it  be  viewed  merely  as  something  "  outside,"  or 
as  an  external  determinant  of  the  psychical  or  biological  individ- 
ual, but  rather  and  fundamentally  as  an  element  in  the  process 
of  the  individual's  self -maintenance  and  self-development. 

2.  The  functional  view  of  mind. 

(a)  Difficulties  inherent  in  the  empirical  and  rationalistic 
interpretations  of  experience  —  The  evolutionary  view  of  mind 
—  Without   a   complete   departure    from   reality,    consciousness 
cannot  be  abstracted  from  its  relations.    Experience,  as  we  know 
it,  is  dynamic :    it  is  process  —  Experience  as  '  activity  '  —  '  Ac- 
tivity '  as  the  unit  of  psychical  life.    The  self  or  subject  as  agent, 
the  object  as  situation  or  conditions  (environment)  are  correlative 
aspects  of  experience.    There  is  no  '  self '  that  is  not  an  effort 
directed  to  the  accomplishment  of  something.    The  self,  then,  has 
reality  as  a  centre  of  experience,  the  bearer  of  the  concrete  life 
of  an  individual.     The  synthesis  of  knowledge  and  of  conduct 
which  composes  that  content  arises  from  the  self's  own  activity 
and  in  its  own  degree  expresses  the  intrinsic  character  of  the  in- 
dividual.   Voluntarism,  accordingly,  regards  the  entire  conscious 
life  as  gathered  up  and  most  completely  manifest  in  activity.    Ac- 
cording to  this  view,  experience  is  dynamic,  the  activity  is  the  self 
in  functional  relation  to  its  object.    This  identification  of  the  ac- 
tivity with  the  self,  the  activity  by  which  the  self  expresses  itself 
and  comes  to  consciousness  of  itself,  constitutes  the  ethical  view 
of  freedom. 

(b)  Certain   psychological   implications   of   Pragmatism  — 
The   '  feeling '   and   '  cognitive '   phases   of  experience   as   con- 
necting links  —  The  organic  connection  between  thought  and  ac- 
tion —  Thought  as  a  part  of  action  —  Personality  as  a  willing  sub- 
ject —  The  teleological  character  of  mental  process. 

(r)  Pragmatism  and  the  teleological  interpretation  of  ex- 
perience —  The  world  of  values  and  duties  as  the  "  object  "  of  the 
self  —  Certain  educational  implications. 

3.  The  social  origin  of  the  distinction  between  the  'self 
and  '  not-self.'    The  activity  of  the  self  in  the  process  of  experi- 


22  The  Philosophy  of  Education 

ence  —  Self  and  self-consciousness  —  The  dominance  of  the  in- 
dividualistic method  in  psychology  —  The  social  factor  in  the 
development  of  self-consciousness  —  Individuality  as  function,  in- 
cluding (a)  capacity  and  (b)  environment,  raised  to  conscious- 
ness through  social  activities  —  Implications  for  educational 
theory. 

4.    Gathering  together  the  results  of  previous  analysis  it  may 
be  held  that: 

(a)  The  reality  of  the  world  conceived  as  the  object  of  pos- 
sible experience  implies  the  perpetual  presence  of  a  spiritual  prin- 
ciple immanent  in  nature  and  humanity. 

(b)  The  self  and  the  world  as  the  terminal  aspects  of  a 
unitary  process  of  experience  are  communicated  to  us  in  insepar- 
able correlation.    Because  of  this  interdependence  of  the  spiritual 
(the  self)  and  the  material  (object,  sphere  of  action,  or  environ- 
ment), the  spiritual  nevertheless  transcending,  the  material   (in 
biological  terms,  '  environment ')   is  everywhere  seen  to  be  the 
indispensable  medium  through  which  the  self  manifests  itself. 
Heredity  and  environment  are,  therefore,  not  '  things-in-them- 
selves  '  set  over  in  mechanical  juxtaposition  against  the  self.    They 
are,  in  reality,  phases  of  the  actual,  concrete,  working  self. 

(c)  The  self,  as  including  (i)  consciousness  of  self  and  (ii) 
consciousness  of  object,  is  at  once  permanent  and  changing.    In 
the  self,  in  virtue  of  consciousness,  is  found  a  process  returning 
upon  itself  in  such  a  way  as  to  retain  its  existing  quality  or  in- 
dividuality.   The  self,  therefore,  is  permanent  because  it  remains 
one  in  its  life-process.    It  is  no  fixed  entity  because  it  is  one  in 
and  through  the  unity  and  continuity  of  its  activity.    Thus  self- 
activity  is  the  essence  of  personality.    Man's  conscious  activity  is 
thus  the  condition  of  the  possibility  of  his  rationality.    The  true 
permanence  of  the  self  lies  in  the  process  of  its  growth  in  a  social 
environment. 

(d)  The  human  self  is  not  merely  a  part  of  the  universe  of 
experience  and  conscious  of  being  a  part,  but  it  is  conscious  also 
of  being  subject  to  its  laws.    It  is  capable,  therefore,  not  merely 
of  development  but  also  of  discerning  the  law  of  its  development, 
of  returning  upon  itself,  contrasting  the  ideal  with  the  actual,  and 
thus  making  progress  possible.    Thus  man  as  the  subject  of  edu- 
cation is  spiritual;  in  other  words,  the  fundamental  condition  of 
his  development  and  education  lies  in  his  capacity  as  a  self- 


The  Presuppositions  of  Education  23 

conscious  subject,  distinguishing  himself  from  the  objects  he 
knows  and  the  ends  he  chooses,  to  return  upon  himself  and  set  up 
ideals  to  realize.  These  ideals  of  possible  development,  while  con- 
trasted with  the  actual,  cannot  be  in  contradiction  to  the  actual ; 
they  are  rather  the  actual  truly  seen,  ».  e.,  in  their  ideal  nature,  as 
those  ends  towards  which  all  previous  development  had  been 
striving. 

(e)  Keeping  in  mind,  then,  (i)  the  contention  advanced  in 
a  preceding  section  that  the  world-process,  as  we  know  it,  is  the 
expression  of  a  meaning,  (ii)  the  social  factor  in  the  development 
of  self-consciousness,  and  (iii)  that  its  purpose  can  be  realized 
only  through  its  own  free  activity,  we  may  say  that  the  progress 
of  the  self  consists  in  conformity  to  the  purpose  which  is  being 
worked  out  through  the  whole  nature  of  things.  (The  demand 
for  a  complete  statement  of  this  purpose  would  be  irrational.) 
The  origin  and  development  of  the  individual  lies,  therefore,  in 
the  meaning  of  the  individual. 

flXIV.   THE   NATURE   OF   ENVIRONMENT 

1.  From  preceding  analyses  it  will  be  noted  that  the  dis- 
tinction between  thing  and  environment  arises  only  in  self -con- 
sciousness.   A  very  persistent  tendency  at  the  present  time  is  to 
conceive  environment  as  acting  upon  the  individual  in  a  purely 
mechanical  way.     Changes  of  '  function  and  structure  '  are  said 
to  be  '  produced '  by  environment,  in  a  way  quite   similar  to 
the  account  of  Empiricism.    This  method  of  viewing  the  mind  is, 
in  reality,  a  relic  of  Dualism. 

2.  On  the  other  hand  if  the  analysis  given  in  the  preceding 
section  be  true,  it  follows : 

(a)  The  environment  of  a  person  is  in  reality  one  side  of  a 
spiritual  process,  throughout  relative  to  the  specific  nature  of 
the  person  whose  environment  it  is. 

(&)  It,  moreover,  is  not  an  unchanging  form,  but  a  changing 
process.  It  is  changing  because  the  person  (whose  environment  it 
is)  changes.  It  forms  for  the  self  an  interrelated  whole,  or  rather, 
it  is  in  a  process  of  organization,  each  part  existing  only  in  re- 
lation to  the  others :  in  which,  moreover,  there  is  ultimately  nothing 
but  the  work  of  mind. 

(c)    The  self  is  not  merely  a  part  of  a  material  and  a  social 


24  The  Philosophy  of  Education 

order  but  is  conscious  of  this  relationship.  This  consciousness 
implies,  at  least  to  some  degree,  the  consciousness  of  a  wider  order, 
the  cosmic,  which  includes  and  transcends  them.  In  the  deepest 
sense,  then,  a  man's  environment  is  not  merely  the  material  or 
social  world  but  the  entire  cosmic  order  of  which  he  forms  a  part. 

(d)  The  environment  of  a  person  is  the  medium  of  his 
self-realization.    Through  environment  the  self  works  towards  its 
realization.     Nature,  civilization,  the  cosmic  order  have  as  their 
principle  of  unity  that  same  self-consciousness  which  makes  of 
the  individual  a  person.     In  coming,  therefore,  to  knowledge  of 
and  conformity  with  the  order  of  nature,  the  life  of  humanity,  the 
moral  order  of  the  world,  the  person  takes  the  only  way  to  a 
knowledge  of  himself,  of  coming  to  consciousness  of  self. 

(e)  On  the  basis  of  this  community  of  nature  between  the 
self  and  its  environment  the  nature  and  possibility  of  '  adapta- 
tion'  or  'adjustment'  (so  frequently  used  to  describe  the  edu- 
cational process)  becomes  intelligible.     The  self  through  its  in- 
herent activity  is  able  to  maintain  itself  in  a  medium  that  is  not 
alien  but  fundamentally  of  one  kin  with  itself.    Its  activity  (i.  e., 
its  adaptation  as  intelligence  and  will)  is  not  a  consequence  of 
the  self,  but  its  essence.     Not  only  is  the  self  able  to  maintain 
itself  in  its  environment  through  adaptation,  but  through  the  same 
process  of  adaptation  to  realize  itself,  for  the  reason  that  knowl- 
edge of  and  conformity  to  the  universal  order  which  forms  its 
environment  is  essentially  the  process  through  which  the  self  is 
realized. 

REFERENCES  : 

(a)  Concerning  the   Cartesian   view   of  mind,   consult,   Caird,   art. 
Cartesianism,  also,  Metaphysics,  in  Encyclopedia  Britannica;  Smith, 
Studies  in  the  Cartesian  Philosophy;  Watson,  An  Outline  of  Phi- 
losophy.   Concerning  Leibnitz's  view  of  mind,  consult,  Dewey,  Leib- 
nitz's Human  Understanding;  Latta,  The  Monadology  of  Leibnitz. 
Concerning  the   Critical   philosophy,   consult,   Caird,    The   Critical 
Philosophy  of  Kant. 

(b)  For  materials  concerning  the  functional  view  of  mind,  consult, 
Baldwin,  Development  and  Evolution;  Dewey,  Studies  in  Logical 
Theory;    Hobhouse,    Mind    in    Evolution;    James,    Principles    of 
Psychology;  Ladd,  A  Theory  of  Reality;  Miinsterberg,  Psychology 
and  Life;  Paulsen,  Introduction  to  Philosophy;  Schiller,  Human- 
ism; Stout,  Analytic  Psychology;  Ward,  Naturalism  and  Agnosti- 
cism. 


The  Individual  and  Society  25 

(c)  Concerning  the   social   factor  in  the  development  of   self-con- 
sciousness, consult,  Baldwin,  Mental  Development,  I-II ;  Bosanquet, 
The  Psychology  of  the  Moral  Self ;  Muirhead,  Elements  of  Ethics; 
Royce,  Studies  in  Good  and  Evil,  also,  Outlines  of  Psychology; 
Stephen,  Science  of  Ethics;  Stout,  Manual  of  Psychology;  Wallace, 
Lectures  and  Essays  on  Natural   Theology  and  Ethics;  Wundt, 
Ethics,  III. 

(d)  For  materials  concerning  the   doctrine  of  the  "self,"  consult, 
Bradley,  Appearance  and  Reality;  Caird,  art.  Metaphysics,  loc.  cit.; 
Dewey,  Study  of  Ethics;  Green,  Prolegomena  to  Ethics;  Haldane, 
Pathway  to  Reality,  I-II ;  Harris,  Logic  of  Hegel,  also,  Psychologic 
Foundations  of  Education;   Illingworth,  Personality,  Human  and 
Divine;   Lotze,   Metaphysics;    Mackenzie,   Introduction   to   Social 
Philosophy;  McTaggart,  Studies  in  Hegelian  Cosmology;  Mellone, 
Philosophical  Criticism  and  Construction;  Ormond,  Foundations  of 
Knowledge;  Royce,  The  World  and  the  Individual,  II,  also,  The 
Conception  of  Immortality;  Sorley,  Ethics  of  Naturalism;  Sturt, 
Personal  Idealism;  Taylor,  The  Problem  of  Conduct;  Watson,  An 
Outline  of  Philosophy. 

FURTHER  PROBLEMS  FOR  STUDY: 

1.  Philosophical  and  educational  implications  of  the  evolutionary  view 
of  mind. 

2.  Education  as  '  world-building.' 

3.  Critique  of  Herbart's  view  of  the  nature  of  mind. 

4.  The  meaning  of  '  experience.' 

5.  The  historical  meanings  of  '  personality.' 

6.  Implications  of  the  social  character  of  consciousness. 


V.     THE  INDIVIDUAL  AND  SOCIETY 

H  XV.   PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION  AND  THE  PHILOSOPHY 

OF  SOCIETY 

I.  The  process  of  individual  experience  arises  within  the 
wider  process  of  social  life.  Apart  from  this  wider  process  it 
would  remain  unintelligible.  The  normal  individual  life  is  life  in 
society,  and  life  in  society  is  the  life  disclosed  in  the  common  life 
of  men  —  Industry,  language,  morality,  education  as  phases  of 
the  social  unity  —  The  organic  unity  of  the  problem  of  social 
progress  —  Education  as  a  form  of  conscious  intervention  in  the 
process  of  social  life  —  Educational  theory  an  organic  part  of  a 
philosophy  of  society. 


26  The  Philosophy  of  Education 

2.  For  the  purposes  of  a  philosophy  of  education  a  fuller  dis- 
cussion of  social  theory  would  center  about  three  questions :  (a) 
the  location  of  the  educational  process  in  the  wider  social  proc- 
ess; (6)  the  standard  of  worth  for  the  estimation  of  social  prod- 
ucts and  achievements;  (c)  the  transformation  of  tendencies  in 
education  into  an  ideal  of  human  endeavor  that  would  be  at  once 
coherent,  concrete  and  appropriate. 

If  XVI.   TYPICAL  CONCEPTIONS  OF  THE  RELATION  OF  THE 
INDIVIDUAL  TO  SOCIETY 

1.  The  individualistic  or  monadistic  view  —  Society  an  ag- 
gregate of  individuals  —  Historical  illustrations  of  the  theory  — 
Influence  of  Individualism  in  establishing  the  moral  value  of  indi- 
vidual personality. 

2.  The  socialistic  or  monistic  view  —  Illustrations  —  '  Man 
is  a  mere  abstraction  and  there  is  nothing  real  but  humanity.' 

3.  The  mechanical  or  dualistic  view  —  Illustrations. 

4.  The  organic  view  which  attempts  to  adjust  the  claims  of 
the  other  three  in  a  way  which,  on  the  whole,  seems  more  con- 
formable to  the  facts.    The  remainder  of  the  section  is,  therefore, 
given  over  to  a  little  more  detailed  statement  of  its  meaning  and 
its  more  important  implications. 

flXVII.   THE  CONCEPTION   OF   SOCIETY   AS   AN   ORGANISM 

The  following  outline  proceeds  on  the  assumption  that  society 
is  essentially  a  psychical  organisation;  in  other  words,  that  in 
the  social  constitution  of  human  nature  is  found,  the  factor  which 
adapts  individuals  one  to  another  in  such  a  way  that  it  becomes 
the  ground  of  unity  in  the  manifold  forms  of  human  interest 
and  activity.  The  organic  view  of  society  postulates :  (a)  identity 
of  interest  between  the  individual  and  society,  and  (&)  that  the 
possibility  of  the  development  of  the  individual  lies  in  participa- 
tion in  the  social  consciousness  and  social  activities.  This  princi- 
ple of  the  coincidence  of  individual  and  social  welfare  occupies 
a  place  in  the  sphere  of  morals  analogous  to  that  which  the 
principle  of  the  uniformity  of  nature  occupies  in  the  domain  of 
knowledge. 


The  Individual  and  Society  27 

1.  Development  of  the  organic  conception  —  Plato,  Hobbes, 
Spencer  —  Spencer's  comparison  between  a  society  and  an  ani- 
mal organism  —  The  danger  inherent  in  the  biological  analogy  — 
Inadequate,  if  not  distinctly  perversive  —  The  question  not  so 
much,  '  Is  society  an  organism  ?  '  as, '  What  is  an  organic  society  ?  ' 

2.  Consideration  of  Mackenzie's  view  of  society  as  an  or- 
ganism —  Examination  of  his  view  that  the  sociality  of  man  de- 
pends on  the  possession  of  self-consciousness  —  The  difficulty 
in  the  '  rationalistic '  view  seems  to  arise  from  its  neglect  of 
'  function.'     The  organic  conception  must  treat  the  individual 
as  a  functional  element  in  a  larger  functional  whole.    The  indi- 
vidual and  society  are  not  two  separate  modes  of  being:  rather 
they  are  two  modes  of  activity  within  the  unity  of  the  social 
process. 

3.  The  reality  of  the  social  mind  —  Its  reality  as  process  — 
The  '  structural '  and  the  '  functional '  points  of  view  in  social 
psychology  — '  Activity '  as  the  elementary  fact  of  social  as  of 
individual  psychology  —  The  conception  of  the  members  of  a 
group   acting   together  —  Intrinsic   relations  — '  Action  '    as   the 
bond  between  the  subjective  and  the  objective  —  The  social  mind 
is  thus  more  than  a  mere  aggregate  of  individual  processes.     It 
is  a  functional,  active  unity.    As  a  psychical  existence,  society  is 
essentially  a  process.    The  social  mind  is,  then,  simply  the  socie- 
tary  process.    In  it  is  found  the  organic,  *.  e.,  functional  unity  of 
various  psychical  processes  in  a  single,  unitary  process. 

4.  Vicariousness   as   a   fundamental   element  in   the   social 
process  —  Differentiation     and     integration  — '  Interchange     of 
service '  consequent  upon  interdependence  between  the  members 
of  society. 

5.  The  unifying  element  in  social  life.     If  society  is  a  psy- 
chical organization  its  unifying  bond  cannot  be   found  in  the 
physical  conditions  of  the  external  world.     What  then  is  the 
ultimate  nature  of  that  inner  bond  which  holds  human  beings 
together?     Some  of  the  best  known  theories  are  the  following: 
(a)  Force;  (b)  Economic  need;  (c)  Religion;  (d)  'Conscious- 
ness of  kind';  (e)  Thought;  (f)  The  idea  of  a  'common  good.' 
In  the  light  of  analyses  made  in  previous  sections  the  notion  of  a 
'  Common  Good  '  is  accepted  as  affording  the  most  satisfactory 
explanation  of  the  social  unity.     This,  of  course,  is  not  to  deny 
the  important  influences  which  Force,  Economic  Interest,  Sym- 


28  The  Philosophy  of  Education 

pathy,  Thought,  Consciousness  of  kind,  and  Religion,  have  ex- 
erted in  the  integration  of  society. 

6.  The  ideal  of  a  common  good  as  the  unifying  element  in 
social  life.  This  view  maintains  that  every  society  exists  through 
the  recognition  by  its  members  of  a  common  good.  Certain 
phases  of  the  argument  in  favor  of  this  conception :  (a)  A  mere 
aggregate  of  individuals  united  by  no  social  bond  whatever  is  not 
a  society;  (&)  'Action'  is  the  elementary  fact  for  social  psy- 
chology; (c)  The  social  character  of  consciousness;  (d)  Teleo- 
logical  interpretation  of  action;  (e)  Each  member  capable  of  self- 
consciousness,  i.  e.,  the  power  of  comprehending  what  is  implied 
in  his  social  instincts.  Activity  (existing  for  the  individual  as 
something  more  than  mere  '  potentiality '  only  in  virtue  of  the 
objective,  i.  e.,  social,  conditions  in  which  it  becomes  actual)  plus 
self-consciousness,  or  rather  activity,  whose  meaning  is  appre- 
hended by  self-consciousness,  makes  human  society  possible;  (/) 
The  objective  conditions  of  the  realization  of  the  common  good 
lie  in  the  various  forms  of  social  organization. 

The  fundamental  bond  of  social  life  is,  then,  none  other  than 
morality,  which  consists  essentially  in  the  presence  of  some  phase 
of  the  social  purpose  as  a  moving  ideal  before  the  individual  mind  ; 
in  short,  in  the  social  constitution  of  the  individual  will  or  mind, 
as  Aristotle  would  say.  In  society,  in  order  to  exist,  the  indi- 
vidual member  must  to  some  degree,  give  up  his  own  selfish  in- 
dulgence for  the  sake  of  a  common  good,  for  the  general  will. 
From  the  beginning  society  has  been  held  together  not  merely 
by  '  economic  necessity '  and  '  consciousness  of  kind/  but  by 
some  leaven  of  goodness  working  in  it.  Conduct  is  good  or  bad 
according  as  it  tends  to  social  well-being  or  the  reverse.  From 
the  beginning  the  individual  has  felt  (often,  it  is  true,  dimly)  that 
his  personal  satisfaction  cannot  exclude,  but  must  include  the 
realization  of  the  social  well-being.  The  bond  of  unity  in  social 
life  and  civilization  is  righteousness  of  life.  The  form  of  virtue 
is  constant,  the  content  is  ever  changing.  The  moral  element 
as  the  fundamental  social  bond  is  not  one  inserted  suddenly  at 
some  point  alongside  the  other  elements;  nor  is  it  their  product. 
It  has  been  present  throughout,  though  more  fully  known  and 
realized  in  the  higher  stages  of  civilization.  Morality  is  the  law 
of  all  life  that  is  truly  human. 


The  Individual  and  Society  29 


U  XVIII.    SOCIAL  MEMBERSHIP :  THE  ETHICAL  DOCTRINE  OF 

PERSONALITY 

From  the  preceding  analysis  it  follows : 

1.  The  social  purpose  is  the  ideal  of  a  social  or  moral  organ- 
ism in  which  the  capacities  of  each  shall  have  opportunity  for  their 
fullest  realization,  and  in  which  the  perfection  of  each  shall  con- 
tribute to  the  perfection  of  all.    The  common  good,  in  other  words, 
is  identical  with  the  complete  development  of  all  the  members  of 
the  community. 

2.  The  individual  good  is  a  common  good,  and  the  perfect 
realization  of  a  man's  nature  is  possible  only  in  and  through  the 
identification  of  his  personal  good  with  the  universal  good.    The 
measure  of  morality,  therefore,  is  the  actual  identification  of  the 
private  self  with  the  universal  self. 

3.  The  social  purpose  or  the  idea  of  human  perfection  as 
the  moving  force  in  social  evolution  has  taken  form  and  body  in 
various  types  of  association.    Man  in  virtue  of  self-consciousness 
has  been  enabled  to  comprehend  (to  a  degree)  the  meaning  of 
these  forms  of  association  in  relation  to  his  destiny.     Hence  it 
is  that  human  history  is  largely  a  record  of  the  progressive- 
changes  made  in  the  various  forms  of  social  organization. 

4.  Self-realization  is  a  process  in  which  the  self  (a)  comes 
to  be  more  completely  defined,  i.  e.,  individualized,  (6)  but  defined 
through  its  membership  in  the  larger  unity.     Personality  is  no- 
self-contained  atomic  existence.    A  moral  personality  is  one  which 
is  discerning  the  meaning  of,  and  executing  a  purpose  in  harmony 
with,  the  moral  order,  and  whose  life  is  being  clothed  with  the 
wealth  of  human  relationships. 

5.  Obligation,  then,   for  a   moral  personality  consists   not 
merely  in  adjusting  himself  to  his  environment,  but  of  adjusting- 
his  environment  to  that  higher  ideal  towards  which  his  environ- 
ment is  striving.     Moral  obligation  thus  compels  the  individual 
to  the  realization  of  the  self  and  the  service  of  society. 

Note.  —  For  materials  concerning  topics  outlined  in  this  section,  con- 
sult list  at  the  close  of  Section  VI. 


3O  The  Philosophy  of  Education 


VI.     MORAL  INSTITUTIONS 

1[  XIX.   HUMAN  INSTITUTIONS  AND  THE  IDEAL  OF  A  COM- 
MON   GOOD 

The  fundamental  ethical  need  of  man  is  self-realization.  The 
form  in  which  that  need  has  been  most  completely  met  in  the 
history  of  the  race  has  been  the  identification  of  a  private  with 
some  common  good :  society,  in  turn,  is  constituted  by  such  identi- 
fication. Herein  is  found  the  basis  of  the  moral  life  of  man. 
The  individual  comes  to  himself  through  membership  in  the 
social  organism,  an  organism  in  which  an  ideal  of  some  common 
good  is  recognized  by  its  members.  Whenever  a  man  obeys  a 
law,  does  a  so-called  virtuous  action,  or  participates  in  the  life  of 
any  one  of  the  various  human  institutions,  he  to  that  degree 
identifies  his  own  good  with  the  general  good,  even  though 
he  may  understand  only  very  imperfectly  the  significance  of  his 
action.  This  ethical  principle,  the  ideal  of  a  common  good,  has 
become  embodied  in  the  various  virtues,  laws  and  institutions. 
The  social  organism  is  the  incarnation  of  man's  inner  life:  vir- 
tues are  the  subjective  habits  of  his  will,  and  institutions  are  their 
outward  embodiment.  Through  these  the  individual  has  realized 
himself,  and  has  at  the  same  time  subserved  the  realization  of 
others.  Morality  is  thus  essentially  a  language  by  means  of  which 
personal  wills  have  communication  one  with  another. 

i.  The  study  of  human  institutions  is  practically  a  study  of 
the  various  forms  in  which  the  principle  of  association  is  seen  to 
operate  in  society.  From  one  point  of  view  association  is  the 
integration  of  individuals  into  the  common  social  process.  So- 
ciety is  concentrated  in  institutions,  and  an  interpretation  of 
institutions  is  an  interpretation  of  society.  They  may  be  studied 
from  a  two-fold  point  of  view :  (a)  of  structure,  or  what  they  are ; 
(&)  of  function,  or  what  they  do.  An  institution  does  not  exist 
simply  for  itself,  but  for  some  purpose.  The  consideration  of 
function  is  the  question  of  importance  for  our  present  aim.  Once 
more  we  revert  to  Aristotle's  distinction  between  the  origin  of 
an  institution  and  the  purpose  or  end  which  it  comes  to  serve. 
There  cannot,  of  course,  be  any  absolute  separation :  on  the  other 
hand,  the  mere  natural  history  of  an  institution  is  not  a  complete 


Moral  Institutions  31 

explanation.  It  does  not  satisfy  as  an  interpretation  of  the  insti- 
tution, nor  sanction  it  as  reasonable.  The  significant  question  for 
the  philosophy  of  education  is  this,  '  How  far  and  in  what  ways 
have  institutions  made  possible  the  spiritual  life  of  man  ? ' 

2.  Society  as  the  medium  of  experience  —  Institutions  as 
meeting-points  for  the  functional  activity  of  their  members  — 
Foci  of  social  influence  and  experience ;  of  a  common  thought  and 
action  content  —  Institutions  (a)  as  facts  in  a  present  and  actual 
society;  (&)  as  centres  for  the  distribution  and  transmission  of 
'  ideas  ';  (c)  as  a  more  or  less  permanent  system  of  purposes  — 
Institutions  as  the  common  substance  of  the  individual  and  the 
social  mind. 

If  XX.   THE  MORAL    VALUE   OF  INSTITUTIONS 

Uniting  the  principles  of  Evolution  and  Idealism  with  the 
notion  of  a  '  common  good/  the  two  important  functions  which 
Institutions  perform  may  be  said  to  be  these : 

i.  They  unify  men.  To  unify  men  is  to  moralize  them. 
In  prescribing  the  general  methods  of  response  to  social  situa- 
tions, institutions  exercise  an  authority  and  control  essential  to 
the  realization  of  the  individual.  They  thus  constitute  a  system 
of  control,  formative  in  the  intellectual  and  moral  development 
of  the  individual.  Institutions  are  the  expression  of  human  inter- 
dependence ;  the  realized  idea  of  humanity.  Herein  is  the  ground 
of  social  obligation.  In  institutions  is  embodied  the  law  imposed 
upon  the  actual  self  by  the  ideal  self.  To  some  degree  the  out- 
come on  the  part  of  individuals  of  voluntary  adaptation  one  to 
another,  but  for  the  most  part  emerging  first  of  all  without  any 
far-reaching  purpose,  institutions  have  conserved  the  social  order 
and  provided  the  means  for  the  realization  of  the  individual. 
While  it  is  freely  admitted  that  in  their  development  the  ideal 
of  the  realization  of  the  capacities  of  the  human  spirit  was  but 
seldom  consciously  presented,  yet  in  the  consciousness  of  man 
there  must  have  supervened  a  universal  principle,  which,  however 
dimly,  enabled  him  to  set  himself  up  as  an  end  to  be  realized, 
and  to  present  to  this  consciousness  persons  other  than  himself. 
It  is  this  universal  principle  in  consciousness  which,  in  the  de- 
velopment and  progress  of  the  human  race,  has  been  the  immanent 
life  of  individual  and  social  activity. 


32  The  Philosophy  of  Education 

2.  They  transmit  experience  and  thus  preserve  the  continuity 
of  the  spiritual  life  of  humanity.  The  doctrine  of  evolution  main- 
tains that  nothing  in  the  world  is  isolated:  all  is  connected. 
There  is  nowhere  atomism,  but  unity,  relation,  participation.  Just 
as  in  nature  truly  seen,  objects  are  closely  united,  and  all  de- 
pendent each  on  each,  so  are  the  generations  of  men  united  one 
to  the  other.  Down  through  the  ages  there  is  this  tide  of  spiritual 
life  slowly  accumulating,  ever  gathering  in  volume,  wider,  deeper, 
stronger.  This  fund  of  spiritual  life,  the  slowly  garnered  ex- 
perience of  humanity,  is  civilization,  and  that  which  constitutes 
the  environment  of  men.  For  the  individual,  at  birth,  it  is  his 
spiritual  inheritance.  It  becomes  his  spiritual  possession  in  a 
large  and  fruitful  way  only  through  education.  From  the  ethical 
and,  therefore,  from  the  educational  point  of  view  civilization 
is  the  vicarious  offering  of  the  race  to  the  individual  to  be  used, 
if  he  will  but  appropriate  it,  for  the  perfecting  of  his  nature,  for 
the  rich  and  varied  expression  of  the  personal  life. 

•flXXI.    THE  MORAL  INSTITUTIONS 

Moral  institutions,  then,  are  the  embodiments  of  those  rela- 
tions which  men,  living  together  in  association  for  some  common 
good,  have  found  to  minister  to  the  realization  of  human  life. 
Only  in  the  postulate  of  the  identity  of  the  individual  and  the 
common  good  can  a  justification  be  found  for  the  institutions 
through  which  men  have  sought  satisfaction  for  their  needs :  only 
in  their  more  perfect  adjustment  and  cooperation  will  the  unity  of 
self-realization  and  of  social  service  be  more  completely  realized. 

1.  The  moral  significance  of  the  family  relationship  —  The 
origin  of  the  family  and  the  origin  of  civilization  —  Domestic 
education  —  Causes  of  decline  of  family  life  in  the  civilization 
of  the  present:  (a)  the  modern  movement  towards  freedom;  (fc) 
economic  changes  and  the  growth  of  large  cities;  (c)  the  disap- 
pearance of  the  ecclesiastical  view  of  marriage  —  Ethical  function 
of  the  home  as  a  social  institution. 

2.  The  school  as  a  form  of  institutional  life.      (See  Sec- 
section  IX.) 

3.  The  ethical  significance  of  '  vocations '  —  The  material 
conditions  of  life  as  part  of  a  connected  system  —  Teleological 
necessity  of  separate  callings  —  Economic  life  as  basis  of  labor 


Moral  Institutions  33 

and  property  —  Labor  as  expression  of  ability  —  Property  as 
realization  of  will  —  Moral  significance  of  '  division  of  labor  '  — 
The  vocation  as  means  of  self-realization.  (See  also  Section  VII.) 

4.  The  State  as  a  moral  institution  —  Society's  method  for 
securing  the  external  conditions  of  the  good  life  —  Extension  of 
the  sphere  of  duty  —  Education  through  citizenship. 

5.  The  church  in  relation  to  society  —  The  church  as  the 
home  of  the  spiritual  life  —  The  unity  and  interdependence  of 
men  —  Religion  and  idealism  in  common  life. 

REFERENCES  : 

(a)  For  materials  concerning  the  theories  of  society  outlined  in 
Sections  V-VI,  consult,  Aristotle,  Ethics,  and  Politics;  Baldwin, 
Mental  Development,  I-II ;  Bosanquet,  The  Philosophical  Theory 
of  the  State;  Caird,  The  Social  Philosophy  of  Comte;  Giddings, 
Principles  of  Sociology;  Mackenzie,  Introduction  to  Social  Philoso- 
phy; Small  and  Vincent,  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Society; 
Ward,  Pure  Sociology. 

(&)  Concerning  the  '  organic '  view  of  society,  consult,  Alexander, 
Moral  Order  and  Progress;  Bradley,  Ethical  Studies;  Dewey,  Out- 
lines of  Ethics;  Jones,  in  Essays  in  Philosophical  Criticism;  Mac- 
kenzie, Introduction  to  Social  Philosophy;  McTaggart,  Studies  in 
Hegelian  Cosmology. 

(c)  Concerning  the  subject  of  '  moral  institutions,'  consult,  Addams, 
Democracy  and  Social  Ethics;  Bosanquet,  Philosophical  Theory  of 
the  State;  Caird,  Philosophy  of  Religion;  Coit,  Ethical  Democracy; 
Dewey,  School  and  Society;  Ely,  Social  Aspects  of  Christianity; 
Fairbairn,  Religion  in  History  and  Modern  Life;  Freemantle,  The 
World  as  the  Subject  of  Redemption;  Green,  Lectures  on  Political 
Obligation;  Harris  (G),  Moral  Evolution;  Harris  (W.  T.),  Psy- 
chologic Foundations  of  Education;  Hegel,  Philosophy  of  Right; 
Henderson,  Social  Elements;  Hobson,  The  Social  Problem;  Hyde, 
Practical  Idealism;  King,  Theology  and  the  Social  Consciousness; 
MacCunn,  The  Making  of  Character;  Mackenzie,  Introduction  to 
Social  Philosophy,  also,  Manual  of  Ethics;  Matthews,  Social  Teach- 
ing of  Jesus;  McKechnie,  The  State  and  the  Individual;  Muirhead, 
Elements  of  Ethics;  Murray,  Introduction  to  Ethics;  Paulsen,  Sys- 
tem of  Ethics;  Peabody,  Jesus  Christ  and  the  Social  Question; 
Ritchie,  Natural  Rights;  Ross,  Social  Control;  Royce,  Religious 
Aspect  of  Philosophy;  Schurman,  Ethical  Import  of  Darwinism; 
Stephen,  Science  of  Ethics;  Wundt,  Ethics. 

FURTHER  PROBLEMS  FOR  STUDY: 

1.  Is  human  law  the  basis  of  morality,  or  morality  of  human  law? 

2.  Religion  and  the  sanctions  for  social  conduct. 

3.  Limits  of  state  interference  in  the  education  of  the  individual. 


34  The  Philosophy  of  Education 

4.  The  psychological  basis  of  social  organization. 

5.  Relations  of  conduct  to  social  situations. 

6.  The  qualities  of  the  '  socialized  '  individual. 

7.  Cooperation  among  the  moral  institutions. 


VII.     THE  ETHICS  OF  DEMOCRACY 

ffXXII.   TRANSITIONAL   CHARACTER   OF   THE   SOCIETY   OF 

THE  PRESENT 

1.  The  more  important  causes  tending  to  modify  modern 
social  life  are:  (a)  The  progress  of  political  democracy,  leading 
to  increased  political  interdependence;  (b)  The  great  industrial 
and  commercial  advance,  leading  to  a  unique  development  of  the 
sciences  and  in  turn  tending  to  produce  an  almost  absolute  eco- 
nomic interdependence;   (c)   The  progress  of  social  democracy, 
and  the  modification  of  methods  in  religious  and  philanthropic 
activities  made  in  response  to  the  new  social  needs,  and  serving 
to  quicken  among  men  the  sense  of  their  moral  and  spiritual  unity. 

2.  The  significance  of  the  progress  in  political  democracy  — 
Rise  of  Western  democracy  —  Interpretation  of  Maine's  state- 
ment :   '  The  modern  popular  government  of  our  day  is  of  purely 
English  origin.'  —  The  ideals  of  liberty,  equality,   fraternity  — 
The  fundamental  political  doctrine  of  Western  democracy  as- 
sumes the  native  equality  of  all  men  —  Strictly  understood,  the 
ideal  of  equality  is  inapplicable  to  human  beings  —  Understood 
as  an  assertion  of  the  moral  and  spiritual  worth  of  an  individual 
as  compared  with  a  mere  instrument  —  Equality  as  part  of  a 
social  ideal  —  The  individualism  of  democracy  is  ethical,  not  nu- 
merical—  The   justification   of   movements   which   make   for   a 
greater  equalization  of  ways  and  means  —  The  extension  of  the 
sphere  of  duty  and  responsibility  —  Political  democracy  depends 
for  its  stability  on  the  education  of  its  citizens. 

3.  Social  results  of  the  Industrial  Revolution:      (a)    The 
substitution  of  the  factory  system  for  the  domestic  system  of 
industry;  (&)  Growth  of  the  spirit  of  competition;  (c)  Industrial 
depressions;  (d)  Certain  socialistic  tendencies;  (e)  A  tendency 
to  materialism  in  thought  and  life  —  The  ethical  significance  of 
Plato's  division  of  society  into  '  classes '  —  Vocations  as  mani- 


The  Ethics  of  Democracy  35 

festing  abilities  —  The  significance  of  uniqueness  of  service  in 
the  development  of  personality  —  The  social  organism  as  unity 
(social  consciousness)  in  difference  (individuality) — Modifica- 
tions in  the  content  and  method  of  education. 

4.  While  it  must  be  admitted  that  in  the  transition  to  the 
new  type  of  social  life  there  has  been  a  quickening  among  men 
of  the  sense  of  their  moral  and  spiritual  unity,  yet  it  would  be  a 
task  of  some  difficulty  to  prove  that  in  the  process  of  substituting 
the  new  political  and  industrial  system  for  the  older  one  the  sense 
of  ethical  interdependence  had  kept  pace  with  that  of  economic 
or  even  political  interdependence:  that  the  spirit  of  cooperation, 
of  the  labor  of  men  for  the  good  of  man,  had  developed  as 
rapidly  as  the  spirit  of  competition. 

H  XXIII.   THE  ETHICS  OF  DEMOCRACY 

In  the  two  preceding  sections  it  was  maintained:  (a)  that 
society  as  actually  constituted  exists  for  the  sake  of  an  end  which 
is  fundamentally  ethical;  (b)  that  an  examination  of  the  funda- 
mental institutions  which  compose  society  reveals  this  ideal  at 
work  as  a  formative  influence  in  every  personality  that  yields 
obedience  to  them;  (c)  that  the  principle  of  cohesion  in  social 
life  and  institutions  is  the  ideal  of  a  moral  organism  in  which 
the  capacities  of  each  individual  member  shall  have  opportunity 
for  their  fullest  realization,  and  in  which  the  perfection  of  each 
shall  contribute  to  the  perfection  of  all;  (d)  that  the  moral  con- 
duct of  the  individual  consists  in  a  free  and  yet  responsible  order- 
ing of  his  thoughts,  affections  and  desires  with  a  view  to  the 
realization  of  such  a  moral  world.  It  is  now  contended  that  in 
this  conception  of  the  social  purpose  is  found  the  ethical  principle 
of  democratic  society.  Moral  personality  is,  therefore,  the  real 
presupposition  and  goal  of  the  social  process. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  was  also  maintained  that  from  another 
point  of  view  the  social  process  may  be  formulated  in  terms  of 
vicariousness.  In  this  process  there  is  a  continuous  interchange 
of  services.  A  particular  level  of  society  represents  a  balancing 
of  services  between  its  members.  So  long  as  this  exchange  is 
real  and  proportional  the  social  process  remains  equable.  A 
period  of  tension  arises  whenever  a  group  of  members  feel  that 
the  just  exchange  of  services  is  interrupted  or  arrested.  In  such 


36  The  Philosophy  of  Education 

a  period  there  is  a  disturbance  of  the  vicarious  relations  due  to 
an  unfair  avoidance  of  responsibility  on  the  part  of  some  member 
or  class  within  the  social  unity.  In  many  cases  where  there  is  a 
disturbance  of  the  social  functioning  there  is  undoubtedly  a  posi- 
tive shirking  of  duty:  it  may  very  well  be,  however,  that  in  the 
majority  of  instances,  an  individual,  or  a  class  within  the  social 
unity,  has  but  lost  for  a  time  and  has  not  yet  regained  the  moral 
insight  necessary  to  accommodation  or  adaptation  within  the 
modified  social  system. 

An  important  phase,  therefore,  of  the  social  problem  of  the 
present  may  be  outlined  as  follows: 

1.  The  ideal  of  democracy  is  the  union  of  free  persons  in  a 
common  life.    In  a  society  that  is  completely  moralized,  *.  e.,  or- 
ganized, the  social  order  would  not  only  be  realized,  but  con- 
sciously realized  under  appropriate  modifications  by  each  member. 
A  society  is  not  truly  organic,  i.  e.,  completely  moralized,  until  it 
has  as  many  centers  of  conscious  experience  as  it  has  members. 
Democracy  is  therefore  endeavoring  to  develop  a  moral  organism 
in  which  there  is  at  once  cooperation  and  scope  for  individual 
freedom. 

2.  The  test  of  any  type  of  society  or  civilization  lies  in  its 
manner  of  distributing  its  spiritual  possessions,  of  mediating  its 
fund  of  spiritual  experiences  and  values;  and  in  its  efficiency  (by 
means  of  institutions,  the  state,  vocations,  education)  in  enabling 
the  individual  to  enter  upon  his  social  inheritance,  and  thus  to 
accomodate  himself  to  the  social  system.    A  modern  society  cannot 
long  maintain  itself  unless  there  is  some  approach  to  justice  and 
proportion  in  the  distribution  or  the  mediation  of  its  spiritual 
goods  and  values  among  all  its  members. 

3.  It  must  be  recognized,  further,  that  the  industrial  type  of 
society  is  the  medium  through  which  the  further  realization  of 
democracy  is  to  take  place.     Through  the  disturbance  of  social 
relationships  consequent  upon  the  growth  of  the  modern  industrial 
system,  there  is  danger  that,  for  a  time  at  least,  society  may  be 
perverted  into  a  mere  mechanism  for  the  accomplishment  of  what 
is  in  reality  a  subordinate  purpose  of  the  social  process,  the  ac- 
cumulation of  wealth.     The  question  uppermost  in  the  minds  of 
perhaps  a  majority  at  the  present  is  that  of  the  distribution  not  of 
the  spiritual  possessions  of  humanity,  but  of  wealth.    Nor  is  it  al- 
ways a  question  of  the  distribution  of  wealth ;  rather  it  is  fre- 


The  Ethics  of  Democracy  37 

quently  one  of  its  monopolization  by  those  who  have  neither 
proper  knowledge  nor  the  desire  to  render  any  social  equivalent. 
4.  A  fundamental  problem  of  present  society  is  therefore 
that  of  mediating  its  fund  of  interests  and  values  in  such  a  way 
that  all  its  members  may  gain  a  deeper  consciousness  of  the  social 
significance  of  their  work.  In  other  words,  How  can  the  indus- 
trial organization  be  more  completely  socialized  and  spiritualized  ? 
How  can  correct  moral  values  be  restored  to  men  as  guiding 
forces  in  the  aims  of  life,  and  the  sense  of  the  moral  and  spiritual 
unity  of  mankind  be  made  more  and  more  to  prevail?  Just 
here  is  a  point  of  interaction  between  the  problem  of  social  prog- 
ress and  that  of  education. 

flXXIV.   THE    PROCESS   OF   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION 

1.  Society  an  existence  in  a  continual  process  of  becoming 

—  Differentiation  and  integration  —  Natural  selection  —  Adapta- 
tion to  environment  —  Adaptation  to  environment  and  progress. 

2.  The  growth  of  social  experience  —  Its  communication  and 
transmission  —  Social  heredity  through  which  the  individual  is 
enabled  to  profit  by  the  experience  of  others  —  Abbreviations  of 
the  process  of  trial  and  error  through  the  impulse  to  imitate  — 
Imitation  and  plasticity  —  Social  order  —  The  equipment  of  the 
individual,  (a)  nervous  plasticity,  and  (&)  consciousness  —  Con- 
sciousness as  arising  in  tension  between  psychophysical  organism 
and  environment  —  Consciousness  as  a  variation  and  as  selective 

—  Progress  on  the  basis  of  order  (i.  e,,  the  individual  as  plastic 
and  imitative  accommodates  himself  to  the  social  order,  but  as 
conscious  and  therefore  selective  produces  variations  which  so- 
ciety deems  valuable  and  which  it  accordingly  selects)  —  Social 
evolution  or  progress  is  always  by  means  of  the  individual  —  So- 
ciety, as  it  were,  represents  the  habitual.    It  is  through  the  indi- 
vidual that  variations  occur,  but  variation  always  on  the  basis 
of  previous  accommodations:  otherwise  the  variations  would  not 
be  recognized  as  socially  available.    They  would  not,  accordingly, 
be  socially  selected  and  transmitted.     To  repeat,  society  and  the 
individual  are  terminal  aspects  of  a  unitary  process,  for  purposes 
of  examination  separable :  in  reality,  inseparable.    The  conclusion 
is  therefore  warranted  that  social  evolution  and  the  evolution  of 
personality  are  fundamentally  the  complementary  aspects  of  the 


38  The  Philosophy  of  Education 

same  fact.  Personality  is  the  real  presupposition  and  goal  of  the 
social  process.  The  function  of  all  institutional  life  is  the  creation 
and  development  of  human  personality  —  Social  evolution  and 
the  democratic  type  of  society. 

3.  The  significance  of  the  prolongation  of  infancy  —  Help- 
lessness of  the  child  and  the  maternal  instinct  and  affection  of 
the  mother  —  Education  arose  as  the  solution  of  a  difficulty  — 
The  growth  of  social  tradition  and  the  gradual  projection  of  the 
tendency  to  transmit  experience  into  an  ideal  —  Natural  and  telic 
education  —  The  emphasis  at  first  upon  plasticity,  rather  than  in- 
dividuality —  Education  gradually  assuming  a  consciously  cen- 
tralized form  —  Educational  theory  as  the  conscious  formulation 
of  the  method  of  spiritual  evolution. 

4.  Education  and  social  progress  —  The  two  types  of  society, 
the  stationary  and  the  progressive  —  Corresponding  types  of  edu- 
cation —  Education  as  recapitulation  of  the  past,  and  education  as 
society's  method  of  re-forming  or  re-making  itself  —  Maintenance 
of  the  balance  between  originality  and  plasticity  in  the  individual 
—  The  '  social  person '  as  representing  the  educational  ideal  — 
No  mere  social  organ,  but  the  social  member  —  The  individual 
contributes  a  power,  a  capacity,  an  impulse  (that  through  which 
the  movement  towards  progress  takes  place)  ;   society  confers 
upon  the   individual  a  method,   a   worth,   a   significance    (that 
through  which  the  existing  order  is  conserved)  —  Education  as 
the  institution  by  which  democratic  society  will  consciously  aim  to 
secure  the  further  realization  of  its  own  ideal. 

Gathering  together,  then,  some  results  of  previous  analysis 
we  discover  the  interrelations  of  education  as  a  human  institution 
and  the  problem  which  the  society  of  the  present  exhibits.  As 
we  move  along  the  history  of  civilization  the  three  factors  are 
ever  before  us:  (a)  the  subjugation  of  nature,  (6)  the  gradual 
improvement  of  social  institutions,  (c)  the  development  of  the 
personal  life.  Education  is  organically  united  with  all  three:  its 
emphasis,  however,  is  upon  the  course  of  personal  development. 

REFERENCES  : 

Addams,  Democracy  and  Social  Ethics;  Alexander,  Moral  Order  and 
Progress;  Bosanquet,  Aspects  of  the  Social  Problem;  Bryce,  The 
American  Commonwealth;  Butler,  Meaning  of  Education;  Cunning- 
ham, Western  Civilisation;  Dewey,  School  and  Society;  De  Tocque- 
ville,  Democracy  in  America;  Donisthorpe,  Individualism;  Eliot, 


The  Course  of  Personal  Development  39 

American  Contributions  to  Civilization;  Giddings,  Democracy  and 
Empire;  Godkin,  Problems  of  Modern  Democracy;  Hadley,  The 
Education  of  the  American  Citizen,  also,  Freedom  and  Responsi- 
bility; Hobson,  The  Social  Problem;  MacCunn,  The  Ethics  of 
Citizenship;  Mackenzie,  Introduction  to  Social  Philosophy;  Mallock, 
Aristocracy  and  Evolution;  McKechnie,  The  State  and  the  Indi- 
vidual; Ritchie,  Natural  Rights,  Darwin  and  Hegel,  also,  Studies 
in  Political  and  Social  Ethics;  Shaler,  The  Individual;  Stephen  (F), 
Liberty,  Equality  and  Fraternity;  Stephen  (L),  Social  Rights  and 
Duties;  Stubbs,  Christ  and  Democracy;  Vincent,  The  Social  Mind 
and  Education. 

FURTHER  PROBLEMS  FOR  STUDY: 

1.  The  contention  of  Sir  Henry  Maine  that  'democracy  is  the  product 
of  a  whole  series  of  accidents.' 

2.  Equality. 

3.  Individualism. 

4.  Morality  of  competition. 

5.  Social  settlements  in  a  democracy. 

6.  Lecky's  contention  that  '  modern  democracy  is  not  favorable  to 
the  higher  forms  of  the  intellectual  life.' 

7.  The  education   of  public  opinion. 


VIII.     THE  COURSE  OF  PERSONAL  DEVELOPMENT 

II XXV.   THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    MIND    AS    PHILOSOPHY    OF 

EDUCATION 

1.  Science   and    Philosophy   limited   by   the   conditions   of 
human  personality  —  The  forms  of  thought  which  human  per- 
sonality provides  —  Consciousness  as  consciousness  of  reality  — 
Existence  as  existence  for  consciousness  —  To  know  the  world 
is  to  know  it  in  terms  of  consciousness  —  Teleological  character 
of  science  and  philosophy  —  The  judgment  of  fact  and  the  judg- 
ment of  worth  —  Science,  philosophy,  art  and  religion  as  descrip- 
tions and  interpretations  of  the  world-process  and  its  meaning. 

2.  Clifford's  contention  that  the  tendency  of  the  organic 
process  is  to  personify  itself  —  The  category  of  individuality  in 
the  interpretation  of  the  evolutionary  process  —  History  and  the 
development  of  Personality  —  Personality  as  a  union  of  universal 
and  individual  elements  in  a  single  manifestation  —  The  '  Per- 
son '  as  carrying  within  himself  the  law  (the  universal  in  thought 
or  action)  he  is  bound  to  obey. 

3.  Personality,  as  the  actual,  concrete  self,  neither  empir- 


4O  The  Philosophy  of  Education 

ical  nor  transcendental  —  No  self-contained  atomic  existence  — 
Modes  of  conscious  activity  constituents  of  a  single  self  —  Self- 
knowledge  through  objective  knowledge  —  Idealism  concerned 
with  the  relation  between  objective  knowledge  and  self-knowledge 
—  Development  of  self -consciousness  as  a  development  of  con- 
sciousness of  the  process  by  which  the  world  (of  things  and  their 
laws,  of  persons  and  their  thoughts)  comes  to  be  known  —  Knowl- 
edge as  idealization  —  Progress  through  science  and  philosophy 
to  the  insight  that  the  self  and  the  world  are  embraced  as  modes 
in  a  deeper  unity. 

4.  Aristotle's  conception  of  Being  as  Activity  —  To  be  is 
to  act  —  His  notion  of  potentiality  —  Actuality  as  (a)  agent  or 
self,  and   (b)   situation   (environment) — What  the  self  does  is 
what  the  self  is  —  It  expresses  itself.    What  the  self  really  is,  is, 
therefore,  what  it  makes  itself  to  be  —  Functional  interpretation 
of  the  activity  of  the  self  —  The  personal  realization  of  a  purpose 
in  harmony  with  the  purpose  embodied  in  the  larger  order  — 
Adaptation  and  self-development  —  Self-realization  as  individual, 
as  social,  and  as  progressive. 

5.  Philosophy  aims  to  humanise  the  facts  of  science,  that 
is,  to  see  them  in  their  relation  to  experience  as  a  whole  —  The 
world  of  intelligence  and  of  humanity  as  the  subject-matter  of 
a  philosophy  of  mind  —  The  process  of  the  mind's  liberation  and 
self-realization  —  Mind  as  the  principle  of  unification  and  organ- 
ization—  The  entire  philosophy  of  mind,  as  a  moral,  that  is, 
educational  philosophy  —  The  philosophy  of  mind  as  wisdom  in 
the  art  of  living  —  The  category  of  purpose,  in  reality,  applicable 
not  so  much  as  an  explanation  of  the  world  of  nature  as  in  the 
development  of  the  conscious  life  of  man  —  Philosophy  of  mind 
as  philosophy  of  education  —  Philosophy  of  education,  attempting 
to  gain  a  conception  of  education  as  a  human  institution  in  which 
its  different  aspects  grow  together  and  coalesce,  affords  the  only 
concrete  method  of  education  —  A  philosophy  of  education  as  an 
integration  of  the  sciences  and  the  humanities. 

If  XXVI.   THE    COURSE    OF   INDIVIDUAL    DEVELOPMENT 

i.  Education  has  so  far  received  little  more  than  incidental 
assistance  from  psychology,  and  this,  largely,  for  two  reasons: 
(a)  The  prevalence  of  an  individualistic  method  in  psychology, 


The  Course  of  Personal  Development  41 

and  (6)  the  comparatively  little  attention  until  recent  years  paid 
to  genetic  psychology  in  the  true  sense.  Education  is  concerned 
fundamentally  with  the  process  of  psychogenesis,  the  mind's 
'  becoming ' ;  the  process  through  which  the  individual,  from 
being  a  mere  sentient  organism,  '  erects  himself  above  himself.' 
The  psychology  which  the  teacher  most  needs  is  that  which  will 
enable  him  to  identify  a  human  being  —  The  '  functional '  inter- 
pretation of  psychogenesis. 

2.  The  identification  of  the  individual  as  the  agent  in  a 
concrete  situation  —  Activity  as  experience  —  The  soul's  experi- 
ence as  life  —  Experience  as  the  matter  of  all  knowledge  —  The 
task  of  educational  psychology  to  show  how  experience  (a)  grows 
and  (b)  is  modified. 

3.  Nature  of  experience.     The  mind  is  not  a  preexisting 
entity  which  comes  to  have  this  or  that  experience.     To  begin 
with  such  a  conception  of  mind  would  inevitably  force  upon  us 
an  arbitrary  and  mechanical  view  of  the  experience  process.     I 
distinguish,  it  is  true,  between  the  mind  and  the  pen  with  which 
I  am  writing.     One  is  '  subject,'  the  other,  '  object.'     But  the 
distinction  is  a  distinction  within  the  process  of  a  unitary  experi- 
ence; the  subject  and  the  object  are  the  two  halves  or  terminal 
aspects  of  the  one  experience  within  consciousness.    The  unitary 
experience  which  I  have  of  this  pen  is  the  reality.     There  is  no 
mere  mind  over  against  a  mere  matter;  no  mere  thought  over 
against  a  mere  thing.     My  experience  of  the  pen  is  neither  a 
mere  physical  fact,  nor  is  it  a  mere  psychological  fact  in  the  or- 
dinary sense  of  the  term.    The  self  and  its  object  are  equally  the 
results  of  a  process.    Back  of  the  distinction  between  the  self  and 
the  thing  there  is  the  experience  process.    The  consciousness  of 
the  object  and  the  consciousness  of  the  self  issue  in  their  differ- 
ence from  a  common  source ;  and  the  consciousness  of  the  object 
is  an  essential  element  in  the  consciousness  of  the  self.     For  re- 
flection only,  the  two  appear  as  an  opposition  of  elements  which 
are,  nevertheless,  necessary  correlates  of  each  other  in  experi- 
ence.   As  the  one  aspect  of  the  process  takes  form  and  feature, 
so  does  the  other.    Simultaneously  with  the  so-called  development 
of  mind,  the  limits  of  the  '  objective '  world  recede.     The  '  de- 
velopment of  mind '  is  thus  fundamentally  a  development  within 
experience  by  means  of  the  complementary  processes  of  differ- 
entiation and  integration.     Moreover,  in  this  unitary  experience 


42  The  Philosophy  of  Education 

we  may  distinguish  between  the  content  or  matter  of  experience 
and  the  mode  of  experiencing  it.  Uniting  this  distinction  with 
the  one  made  above,  it  will  be  noted  that  the  self  is  the  bearer 
of  the  activity  through  which  the  '  experiencing '  takes  place, 
while  the  '  object '  is  content  or  material.  In  terms  of  educa- 
tional method,  and  making  use  of  the  Kantian  phraseology  of 
'  form '  and  '  matter,'  it  may  be  said  that  '  experience '  is  the 
'  realization '  by  the  self  of  its  matter  or  content.  Educational 
method  is  concerned,  therefore,  not  so  much  with  ways  or  means 
of  importing  into  the  vacant  spaces  of  a  pupil's  mind  materials 
(studies)  supposed  to  be  without,  but  rather  in  assisting  the  pupil 
to  realize  in  its  depth  and  breadth  the  meaning  of  the  pupil's  own 
experience. 

4.  The  growth  of  experience.    Experience  is  essentially  dy- 
namic, moving,  progressive ;  the  outcome  of  the  entire  self-realizing 
activity  of  the  soul.     The  essential,  the  inner  nature  of  experi- 
ence is  revealed  in  its  movement,  in  its  realization,  and  the  move- 
ment is  the  outcome  of  the  self  term  (or  '  terminal  aspect,'  with 
its  interests,  needs,  and  '  obstinate  questionings  ')  of  the  experi- 
ence process,  and  not  the  outcome  of  the  content  (the  intellectual 
pr  cognitive  aspect).    The  cognitive  aspect,  whether  as  sensation 
or  as  idea,  is  simply  a  sign.    That  is  to  say,  in  the  whole  round  of 
any  experience,  the  experience-content  is  but  a  sign,  a  mediating 
link,  in  the  entire  experience.     Knowledge  is  thus  one  phase  of 
experience,  one  aspect  of  a  unitary  happening.     But  neither  in 
origin  nor  in  aim  does  it  appear  to  be  the  ultimate  or  fundamental 
aspect.     It  has  no  psychical  significance  apart  from  the  other 
phases  of  the  experience  process.    In  this  process  its  function  is 
indicative,  regulative,  mediative.     The  known  '  fact '  is  known 
only  as  part  of  an  experience-process,  and  as  bearer  of  '  sign  * 
or  '  significance '  is  understood  only  as  part  of  the  entire  ex- 
perience.    In  the  realization  of  the  self,  therefore,  knowledge  is 
not  its  own  end.     True  knowledge  is  not  something  hard  and 
solid,  but  a  vital  element,  the  significance  of  which  lies  in  its 
power  to  direct  or  control  the  onward  movement  of  experience. 

5.  The  social  nature  of  conscious  growth.     Just  as  episte- 
mology  insists  upon  the  organic  relation  between  intelligence  and 
the  world,  social  psychology  insists  upon  the  organic  unity  of 
the  individual  and  society.    The  study  of  the  growth  of  conscious- 
ness, whether  in  the  race  or  the  child,  points  to  the  conclusion 


The  Course  of  Personal  Development  43 

that  the  real  self  is  always  a  social  self;  that  the  nature  of  the 
individual  is  essentially  social.  In  other  words,  the  individual's 
relations  to  his  fellows  are  not  external  attachments  of  his  per- 
sonality but  the  source  of  its  inmost  content  and  reality.  The 
completely  isolated  individual,  uninfluenced  by  social  forces,  does 
not  exist  as  a  fact  of  experience.  The  relative  independence  we 
attribute  to  the  individual  man  is,  in  reality,  the  result  of  later 
evolution.  The  child,  after  the  manner  also  of  primitive  man, 
gradually  individualizes  himself  out  of  a  state  of  social  indiffer- 
ence, differentiating  his  personality  in  a  medium  with  which  he 
had  hitherto  identified  himself.  In  normal  personal  development, 
however,  there  is  differentiation  only  that  there  may  be  completer 
integration;  there  is  self-estrangement  only  that  the  earlier  unity 
may  be  more  completely  understood.  In  order,  then,  adequately 
to  recognize  the  nature  of  personal  consciousness,  it  must  be 
studied  in  the  light  of  its  social  character  and  growth.  The  in- 
dividual soul  appears  and  lives  in  the  sociality  of  human  beings. 
Sociality  is  the  law  (embodied,  as  has  already  been  noted,  in 
language,  in  morality,  in  human  institutions)  of  its  existence: 
it  is  the  specific  law  of  personal  experience.  The  life  of  the  in- 
dividual is  thus  an  organic,  functional  unity,  in  a  larger  func- 
tional whole.  The  life  of  the  individual  is  its  meaning:  and  its 
meaning  is  born  for  it  in  the  process  of  accommodation  and  re- 
sponse to  the  wider  intellectual  and  moral  order  which  encom- 
passes it.  Personal  consciousness  is,  therefore,  the  result  of  a 
constant  give  and  take,  an  unceasing  social  synthesis.  The  ex- 
perience of  the  person  is  at  once  individual  and  social.  Social, 
in  the  sense  that  the  stimulus  is  always  socially  initiated  and  the 
response  socially  determined :  individual,  in  the  sense  that  the 
experience  is  a  realization  of  the  self. 

6.  The  social  control  of  individual  development  —  The  con- 
tribution of  the  individual:  instinctive  and  impulsive  tendencies. 
The  contribution  of  society:  plans  of  action,  values,  interpreta- 
tions —  Experience  in  the  individual  is  thus  the  outcome  of  these 
two  '  energies,'  namely,  the  qualities,  impulsive  and  instinctive 
of  the  individual  agent,  and  the  stimuli,  regulative  and  interpre- 
tative, of  society  —  The  self  expresses  itself  in  and  through  its 
environment  (social)  — Influence  upon  consciousness  of  the  suc- 
cess or  failure  of  the  activity  —  Expression  always  socially  con- 
trolled—  The  methods  of  social  control:  (a)  Imitation  and  sug- 


44  The  Philosophy  of  Education 

.gestion,   (b)   Habituation,  (c)   Instruction — The  significance  of 
these  processes  in  the  organization  and  upbuilding  of  experience 

—  They  all  serve  to  give  '  form  '  to  individual  experience  —  The 
meaning  of  instruction  as  a  method  of  social  control  —  Studies 
as  social  experience  systematically  organized  as  plans  of  action, 
by  means  of  which  the  individual  may  master  or  interpret  his 
own  experience. 

1f  XXVII.    THE   IDEAL   AS    SELF-REALIZATION 

1.  Self-realization  as  a  working  ideal  —  The  self  as  a  con- 
crete, living  unity  in  process  of  realization  —  The  identity  of  the 
•self  and  its  realization  —  The  actual  and  the  ideal  in  living  unity 

—  Through  self-consciousness  the  self  returns  upon  itself  and, 
grasping  the  law  of  its  own  development,  contrasts  the  ideal  and 
the  actual  —  The  law  of  its  own  development  also  the  law  of  the 
world  objective  to  itself  —  Environment  as  a  presentation  to  the 
individual  of  his  other,   unrealized  self  —  Self-realization  as  a 
realization  of  the  nature  of  the  self  as  a  whole,  as  a  statement, 
is  not  barren,  because  the  only  self  we  know  is  a  self  whose  nature 
Is  in  a  process  of  realization. 

2.  Aspects  of  conscious  life: 

(a)  Intellectual.     The   growth  of  knowledge   as   a   social 
process  —  The  common  intellectual  life  of  man  —  Knowledge  as 
a  spiritual  organism  —  The  main  forms  of  intellectual  construc- 
tion involved  in  the  building  up  of  experience:    (i)  Perceptual; 
(ii)  Scientific;  (Hi)  Ethical;  (iv)  Aesthetic;  (v)  Philosophical; 
(vi)    Religious  —  Degrees  of  knowledge  —  The  significance  of 
the  categories  —  The  objective  world  as  an  idea- wo  rid  —  Aim  of 
science:    (i)  intercommunication  with  a  view  to  cooperation;  (ii) 
economy  of  intellectual  labor  through  the  discovery  of  general 
rules  applicable  to  typical  situations  in  social  life  —  Philosophy 
as  the  organic  unity  of  the  sciences  —  The  goal  of  knowledge  not 
the  abstract  but  the  concrete  —  Methods  of  knowledge  in  rela- 
tion to  methods  in  education. 

(b)  Aesthetic.      The   apprehension   of   the   beautiful  —  As 
emotional  —  The  judgment  of  appreciation  —  The  liberation  of 
the  self  from  itself  —  The  meaning  of  Bosanquet's  statement: 
rf  That  the  world  of  mind,  or  the  world  above  sense,  exists  as 
an  actual  and  organized  whole,  is  a  truth  most  easily  realized  in 


The  Course  of  Personal  Development  45 

the  study  of  the  beautiful.  And  to  grasp  this  principle  as  Hegel 
applies  it  is  nothing  less  than  to  acquire  a  new  contact  with 
spiritual  life.' 

(c)  Moral.  As  actual  and  as  moral  the  self  a  member  of 
society  —  The  end  of  action  and  the  good  —  The  activity  and 
the  good  as  concrete  —  The  good  as  realized  in  the  concrete  cir- 
cumstances of  life  —  Goodness  as  the  transcendence  of  the  natural 
life  —  Imperfect  development  through  imperfect  knowledge  — 
Freedom  of  the  self  through  moral  insight  —  Moral  personality 
(i)  as  progressive,  (ii)  as  possessed  of  sound  intellect,  (iii)  as 
efficient,  (iv)  as  responsive  to  the  claims  of  the  moral  order  by 
which  it  is  surrounded  —  Self-realization  as  the  organization  of 
life  in  harmony  with  the  moral  insight. 

3.  Gathering  together,  then,  in  brief  form,  some  of  the  re- 
sults of  the  preceding  analysis  of  the  course  of  personal  develop- 
ment, we  may  say: 

(a)  The  realization  of  the  self  is  attained  through  an  in- 
ward movement,  by  which,  while  its  manifestation  becomes  mani- 
fold, its  identity  is  still  preserved. 

(&)  The  progress  of  the  soul's  life  in  its  intellectual,  aes- 
thetic and  moral  aspects  is  from  the  level  of  the  instinctive  and  im- 
pulsive, a  level  in  which  the  self  is,  as  it  were,  immersed  in  the 
material,  to  the  level  in  which  the  material  has  become  trans- 
formed and  organized,  according  to  the  thought  and  purpose  of 
the  soul. 

(c)  The  realization  of  the  self  is  possible  ultimately  because 
the  principles  that  are  constitutive  and  regulative  in  the  process 
of  the  individual  life  are  the  constitutive  and  regulative  principles 
in  the  objective  world  of  nature  and  humanity. 

(d)  The  life  of  the  soul,  while  dependent  on  an  inward 
energy,  is  nevertheless  a  continual  process  of  self-estrangement. 
Its  reality  lies  in  a  movement  outward,  which  is  at  the  same  time 
a  movement  upward.     Progress  in  inner  freedom  is  through 
liberation  to  higher  forms  of  being. 

4.  The    incompleteness    and    inadequacy    of    experience  — 
Society  as  an  inevitable  condition  of  the  realization  of  the  self  — 
The  insufficiency  of  social  life  —  The  individual,  while  in  his  de- 
velopment consolidated  and  sustained  by  the  social  order,  is  in- 
evitably impelled  beyond  any  actual  society  —  The  inner  connec- 
tion  between   morality   and   religion  —  From   the   philosophical 


46  The  Philosophy  of  Education 

point  of  view,  religion  has  two  functions,  (a)  to  explain  nature,, 
(6)  to  explain  and  give  coherence  to  the  moral  life.  If  we  main- 
tain the  supremacy  of  reason  in  the  interpretation  of  experience 
we  assert  that  reason  is  the  fundamental  of  all  life.  '  God  is 
forever  reason ;  and  His  communication,  His  revelation,  is  reason ;, 
not,  however,  abstract  reason,  but  reason  as  taking  a  body  from, 
and  giving  life  to,  the  whole  system  of  experience  which  makes 
the  history  of  man.  The  revelation,  therefore,  is  not  made  in  a 
day,  or  a  generation,  or  a  century.  The  divine  mind  touches, 
modifies,  becomes  the  mind  of  man,  through  a  process  of  which 
mere  intellectual  conception  is  only  the  beginning,  but  of  which 
the  gradual  complement  is  an  unexhausted  series  of  spiritual  dis- 
cipline through  all  the  agencies  of  social  life.'  (T.  H.  Green.) 

If  XXVIII.   THE  PLACE  OF  EDUCATION  IN  THE  COURSE  OF 
INDIVIDUAL  DEVELOPMENT 

1.  The  transmission  of  the  traditional  wisdom  —  Education 
as  a  social  institution  —  The  system  of  education  as  the  basis  of 
social  order  —  Education  as  a  form  of  social  control  —  As  a  form 
of  social  economy  —  As  a  means  to  the  social  appropriation  of 
individual  achievement  —  As  a  method  of  society  in  mediating  or 
individuating  its  spiritual  possessions. 

2.  Education  necessary  to  the  production  of  a  human  being 
—  Education  and  economy  in  the  individual  life  —  Society  as  a 
medium  through  which  the  realization  of  the  self  takes  place 
— No  question  of  the  individual  versus  society  —  The  organic 
relation    of    individual    '  ends  '     and     social    '  ends  '  —  '  Over- 
specialization  '  in  the  industrial  and  the  intellectual  life  —  Science, 
art,  and  morality  as  related  aspects  of  one  functional  activity  — 
Uniqueness   of  service   and   self-sacrifice   in   society's   behalf  — 
Education  as  preparing  for  effective  participation  by  the  individ- 
ual in  the  social  order  —  Culture  and  the  spiritual  life  —  Bosan- 
quet's  description  of  culture  as  '  the  habit  of  mind  instinct  with 
purpose,  cognizant  of  a  tendency  and  connection  in  human  achieve- 
ment,  able  and   industrious   in   discerning  the   great   from   the 
trivial '  —  The  work  of  education  and  the  deepening  and   en- 
richment of  experience  —  Inward  intensity  and  outward  expan- 
sion—  The  expression  of  human  qualities  at  their  acme  —  The 
aim  of  education  as  action  with  full  consciousness  of  its  meaning 
and  significance. 


The  Course  of  Personal  Development  47 

f  XXIX.    PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION  AS  KNOWLEDGE  OF 
THE  PRESUPPOSITION  OF  INDIVIDUAL  DEVELOPMENT 

In  his  little  treatise  De  Emendatione  Intellectus  Spinoza  says 
that  we  must  '  have  an  exact  knowledge  of  the  nature  which  we 
desire  to  perfect,  and  also  know  as  much  as  possible  of  nature  in 
general.'  The  philosophy  of  education  is,  for  the  most  part,  con- 
cerned with  the  presuppositions  of  education.  It  is  not  concerned 
with  finding  out  new  facts  nor  supporting  new  ideals.  It  is  con- 
cerned with  the  organization  rather  than  the  enlargement  of  our 
knowledge.  And  yet  the  best  way  to  find  out  what  man  may  be 
is  to  know  what  he  is.  If  the  preceding  analysis  be  along  the 
line  of  truth,  the  education  of  the  individual  is  seen  to  have  its 
foundations  deep  down  in  the  very  nature  of  things.  A  phi- 
losophy of  education  should  give  us  guidance:  it  will  also  give 
us  hope. 

REFERENCES  : 

(a)  Concerning  the  general  conception  of  'experience,'  consult, 
Bradley,  Appearance  and  Reality;  Caird,  The  Critical  Philosophy 
of  .Kan/;  Dewey,  in  Mind,  (Vol.  XI)  ;  Hobhouse,  Theory  of  Knowl- 
edge; James,  Principles  of  Psychology,  also,  Will  to  Believe ;  Mac- 
kenzie, Outlines  of  Metaphysics;  Schiller,  Humanism;  Stout,  Ana- 
lytic Psychology;  Ward,  Naturalism  and  Agnosticism. 
(&)  Concerning  the  idea  of  'self,'  consult,  Bradley,  Appearance  and 
Reality;  Dewey,  The  Study  of  Ethics;  Green,  Prolegomena  to 
Ethics;  Mackenzie,  Introduction  to  Social  Philosophy;  McTaggart, 
Studies  in  Hegelian  Cosmology;  Royce,  The  World  and  the  Indi- 
vidual; Stout,  Manual  of  Psychology;  Wallace,  Hegel's  Philosophy 
of  Mind,  The  Logic  of  Hegel  (Prolegomena),  also,  Lectures  and 
Essays  on  Natural  Theology  and  Ethics. 

(c)  Concerning  the  topic  'genesis'  in  the  mental  life,  consult,  Bald- 
win, Mental  Development,  I-II,  also,  Development  and  Evolution; 
Bosanquet,  Psychology  of  the  Moral  Self;  Harris,  Psychologic 
Foundations  of  Education;  Hobhouse,  Mind  in  Evolution;  James, 
Principles  of  Psychology;  Ormond,  Foundations  of  Knowledge; 
Stout,  Manual  of  Psychology. 

«(d)  Concerning  the  '  social '  character  of  consciousness,  consult, 
Baldwin,  Mental  Development,  I-II,  also,  Development  and  Evolu- 
tion; Mezes,  Ethics  Descriptive  and  Explanatory;  Royce,  The 
World  and  the  Individual,  Outlines  of  Psychology,  also,  Studies  in 
Good  and  Evil;  Stephen,  Science  of  Ethics;  Stout,  Manual  of 
Psychology;  Tarde,  Laws  of  Imitation;  Wallace,  Lectures  and 
Essays, 
(e)  Concerning  'self-realization'  as  the  moral  ideal,  consult,  Alex- 


48  The  Philosophy  of  Education 

ander,  Moral  Order  and  Progress;  Bosanquet,  Philosophical  Theory 
of  the  State;  Bradley,  Ethical  Studies;  Dewey,  Outlines  of  Ethics; 
Duff,  Spinoza's  Political  and  Ethical  Philosophy;  Green,  Proleg- 
omena to  Ethics;  Laurie,  Ethica;  Mackenzie,  Manual  of  Ethics; 
Moore,  Principia  Ethica;  Muirhead,  The  Elements  of  Ethics;  Paul- 
sen,  A  System  of  Ethics;  Sorley,  Ethics  of  Naturalism;  Taylor, 
The  Problem  of  Conduct. 

FURTHER  PROBLEMS  FOR  STUDY: 

1.  The  concept  of  mental  activity. 

2.  The  bearings  of  Pragmatism  on  educational  theory. 

3.  The  nature  of  experience. 

4.  Mind  as  product  and  as  principle. 

5.  The  psychology  of  the  '  ethical '  self. 

6.  Society  as  a  psychological  organization. 

7.  The  rational  sanction  of  social  service. 

8.  Correspondence  of  the  processes  of  individual  and  social  develop- 
ment 


IX.     THE  SCHOOL  AS  A  SOCIAL  INSTITUTION 

If  XXX.   THE  CONTINUITY  OF  THE  EDUCATIONAL  PROCESS 

The  educative  process  is  essentially  continuous.  The  idea 
fundamental  to  the  process  is  the  realization  of  the  individual 
through  his  increasing  participation  in  the  knowledge,  the  inter- 
ests and  the  activities  of  social  life.  From  the  individual's  earliest 
infancy  this  process  of  participation  has  been  widening  and  deep- 
ening, and  always  to  some  degree  under  the  direction  and  control 
of  the  expectations  and  demands  of  those  who  form  the  social 
enclosure  of  his  life.  Family  life,  no  matter  how  unorganized  it 
may  at  first  sight  appear,  saturates  the  child's  mind,  directs  his 
activity  and  thus  introduces  some  degree  of  order  into  his  un- 
regulated impulses.  In  the  school  is  found  a  more  highly  or- 
ganized factor  in  the  process  of  mediating  the  fund  of  social  in- 
terests and  values  and  thus  securing  the  social  transformation  of 
the  individual.  Yet  while  the  school  as  a  moral  institution  may 
perform  its  task  more  consciously  or  more  systematically  than 
the  family  or  the  other  educative  institutions,  it  cannot  do  so 
more  inevitably  or  with  more  permanent  or  far-reaching  effect. 
As  was  indicated  in  Section  VI  the  entire  environment  of  the  in- 
dividual as  concentrated  in  the  great  human  institutions,  the  home, 


The  School  as  a  Social  Institution  49 

the  school,  the  vocation,  the  state,  and  the  church,  is  to  be  re- 
garded fundamentally  as  a  medium  in  which  the  educational  proc- 
ess, as  a  unitary  and  continuous  thing,  is  organized  and  directed. 
The  school,  therefore,  is  that  form  of  institutional  life  in  which 
are  concentrated  those  agencies  and  influences  through  which 
society  endeavors  to  reinforce  the  life  of  those  who  are  to  be 
its  members  with  such  forms  of  experience  as  make  for  effective 
membership  in  a  social  order. 


If  XXXI.   HISTORICAL   EVOLUTION   OF  THE   SCHOOL 

1.  The  social  function  of  education  among  primitive  peoples 

—  Early  education  through  the   family  and  community  life  — 
The  principle  of  specialization  of  function  and  division  of  labor 
among  institutions  —  Clearly  operative  in  the  history  of  educa- 
tion—  The  development  of  the  philosophical  schools  in  Greece 

—  Social  character  of  Greek  education  —  Practical  character  of 
Roman  education  —  The  religious  motive  in  Judea  —  Education 
in  the  school  as  a  phase  of  the  work  of  the  church  —  Gradual 
development  of  the  notion  of  education  as  a   function  of  the 
state  —  The     ensuing     intellectualization     of     education  —  The 
growth  of  the  idea  of  preparation  for  citizenship  —  Tendency  to 
isolate  the  state  and  society  —  The  complex,  and  yet  organic  unity 
of  life  in  society  —  The  complexity  of  the  social  aim  —  Social 
extension  of  the  public  school. 

2.  Lack  of  continuity  in  the  organization  of  the  school  at 
the  present  time  —  A  mosaic,  the  parts  of  which  are  the  result 
of  various  historic  conditions  and  motives  —  The  struggle  with 
'  fixed  '  social  conditions  —  Tensions  in  the  educational  and  the 
social  process  —  The  origin  of  the  Kindergarten  in  an  ethical 
motive  —  The  Elementary  school  in  its  origin  utilitarian  —  Re- 
naissance origin  of  the  Academy  and  the  High  School  —  Dualism 
between  elementary  and  secondary  education  —  Conflicting  aims 

—  The  American  College  and  University  —  The  dualism  between 
'  liberal '    and     '  professional '     education  —  Professor    Dewey's 
analysis  of  the  '  educational  situation.' 


The  Philosophy  of  Education 


t  XXXII.   THE   SOCIAL  ORGANIZATION   OF  THE   SCHOOL 

1.  The  school  as  a  moral  organism  —  As  an  embodiment  of 
the  social  purpose  —  Ways  in  which  the  school  aims  to  realize 
the  social  purpose  —  A  medium  of  assimilation  —  The  extension 
of  the  individual's  consciousness  of  kind  —  Not  mere  preparation 
for  living,  but  a  life  with  interest  and  meaning  in  the  present  — 
Selection    and    idealization    in   the    school   through   curriculum, 
method,  discipline  —  The  balance  between  the  ideal  and  the  real 

—  Cultivation  of  the  social  dispositions  and  habits  —  Diversity 
of  individuals  in  a  community  of   relations  —  It   is,   after  all, 
through  association  that  individuals  are  enabled  to  become  dis- 
tinguishable from  one  another.    It  is  essential,  therefore,  that  in 
the  school  a  balance  be  maintained  between  what  may  be  called 
the  individualization  and  the  assimilation  of  the  individual  units 
to  the  social  process.     In  a  truly  dynamic  society  the  conscious- 
ness of  difference  keeps  pace  with  the  consciousness  of  kind. 

2.  Advantages  and  dangers  in  school  education  —  A  legiti- 
mate form  of  self-preservation  on  the  part  of  the  state  —  Pro- 
vision against  the  imperfection  or  contingency  of  private  effort 

—  The  '  institutionally  '  educated  man,  versus  the  '  self-educated  ' 
man  —  A    social    medium    for    the    development    of    leadership 
and  self-reliance  —  Social  judgment  and  public  opinion  —  Lack 
of  flexibility  in  a  changing  social  life  —  The  '  lock-step  move- 
ment '  —  Waste  in  school-life  —  Dr.  Harris's   statement  of  the 
educational  function  of  the  isolation  of  the  school. 

3.  The  social  possibilities  of  the  school  —  The  social  order 

—  The  recitation  as  a  social  process  —  Individual  responsibility 

—  The  ethics  of  democracy  and  the  ethics  of  the  school  —  The 
several  types   of   education  —  The   respective    functions   of   the 
several  types  of  school  in  mediating  the  spiritual  inheritance  of 
society  to  its  members  and  assimilating  them  to  the  social  purpose. 

4.  The  teacher  as  organizer  of  the  community  life  of  the 
school  —  The  mediating  function  of  the  teacher  in  the  social  proc- 
ess —  Interdependence   of  theory   and  practice  —  The   teacher's 
realization  of  the  meaning  of  the  social  process  —  Action  in  its 
highest  sense  is  doing  with  adequate  realization  of  the  meaning 
of  what  we  are  doing. 


The  Intellectual  Organisation  of  the  School  51 

REFERENCES : 

In  addition  to  the  works  in  Sociology  and  Ethics  referred  to  in 
previous  sections,  the  following  may  be  consulted :  Barnett,  Com- 
mon Sense  in  Education;  Bryant,  Educational  Ends;  Dewey,  School 
and  Society,  also,  The  Educational  Situation;  Dutton,  Social  Phases 
of  Education;  Henderson,  Education  and  the  Larger  Life;  Hyde, 
Practical  Idealism;  Mark,  Individuality  and  the  Moral  Aim  in 
Education;  Parker,  Concentration;  Rooper,  Studies  and  Addresses; 
Search,  An  Ideal  School;  Skrine,  Pastor  Agnorum;  Thring,  Edu- 
cation and  School;  Tompkins,  School  Management;  Young,  Isola- 
tion in  the  School,  also,  Ethics  in  the  School. 

FURTHER  PROBLEMS  FOR  STUDY: 

1.  Individuality  as  an  end  in  education. 

2.  The  function  of  education  in  democratic  society. 

3.  Isolation  in  the  school. 

4.  The  school  as  a  selective  agency  in  social  life. 

5.  The  private  school  in  democratic   society. 

6.  The  public  school  as  a  social  center. 

7.  The  school  as  an  instrument  of  social  progress. 


X.     THE  INTELLECTUAL  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

If  XXXIII.   THE   PROBLEM   OF  THE  COURSE  OF  STUDY 

In  coming  to  the  question  of  the  intellectual  organization  of 
the  school  we  meet  at  once  the  problems  of  subject-matter  and 
method.  What  determines  these  two  elements  of  the  process 
within  the  school,  and  what  are  their  mutual  relations?  A  ma- 
jority, perhaps,  would  agree  that  method  should  be  given  a  psycho- 
logical basis.  This  question  is  considered  a  little  more  fully  later 
in  the  section.  So  far  as  the  subject-matter  is  concerned  common 
procedure  seems  much  more  empirical.  The  need  of  re-forming 
the  course  of  study  in  harmony  with  a  new  order  of  society  has 
been  felt  but  not  as  yet  distinctly  realized. 

Looking  back  over  the  history  of  educational  theories  since 
the  Renaissance,  we  find  at  least  three  well-defined  types  of  doc- 
trine concerning  the  aim  and  standard  in  the  selection  of  studies : 
(a)  The  Humanistic,  (b)  The  Realistic,  (c)  The  Disciplinarian. 
Other  motives,  also,  entered,  serving  to  complicate  the  problem: 
(a)  the  ethical,  as  part  of  the  modern  democratic  movement,  (b) 
the  utilitarian,  (c)  the  political.  The  last  two  have  been  con- 
nected primarily  with  the  work  of  the  elementary  school  con- 


52  The  Philosophy  of  Education 

ceived   as   a   preparation   for   practical   life   and   the   duties   of 
citizenship. 

In  recent  years  three  typical  attempts  have  been  made  to 
gain  some  kind  of  working  philosophy  or  basis  of  the  course  of 
study,  other  than  that  of  mere  tradition  or  empiricism,  —  the 
theories  of  Dr.  Harris,  Professor  Rein  and  Professor  Dewey. 

fl  XXXIV.   THE  COURSE  OF  STUDY  AS  INTERPRETED  BY  DR. 

HARRIS 

Consult,  Psychologic  Foundations  of  Education. 

According  to  Dr.  Harris,  "  Any  complete  course  of  study 
has  five  coordinate  groups.  Two  phases  of  nature,  three  phases 
of  man,  five  phases  in  all  are  presented  by  human  learning  and 
are  presented  also  by  the  normal  course  of  study  in  the  school." 

1.  In  the  light  of  the  interpretation  of  the  course  of  study 
given  in  the  Psychologic  Foundations  it  will  be  noted  that  for 
Dr.  Harris: 

(a)  The  point  of  emphasis  in  the  theory  is  the  spiritual 
dependence  of  the  individual  on  the  civilization  into  which  he 
is  born. 

(b)  The  school,  in  attempting  to  preserve  the  integrity  of 
civilization,  should  aim  primarily  not.  to  secure  the  individual 
variation,  but  rather  to  produce  the  type  of  life  that  is  generic, 
historic  and  characteristically  human. 

(c~)  The  controlling  principle,  therefore,  in  the  selection  and 
correlation  of  studies  is  that  of  their  place  and  function  in  main- 
taining the  historic  unity  and  continuity  of  human  experience. 

2.  Taking  the  theory  as  a  whole  in  its  relation  to  Dr.  Harris's 
general  philosophical  position  the  following  questions  might,  per- 
haps, be  raised: 

(a)  Is  the  somewhat  dualistic  conception  of  man's  environ- 
ment consistent  with  the  general  monistic  theory  fundamental  to 
Dr.  Harris's  teaching,  and,  if  it  is  not  consistent,  does  it  furnish 
us  a  philosophical  and  unitary  principle  by  which  to  determine 
the  course  of  study? 

(&)  Is  not  the  analysis  into  groups  of  studies  logical  rather 
than  psychological?  Is  not  the  coordination  regarded  from  the 
educator's  rather  than  from  the  child's  point  of  view?  The 
psychology  of  a  study  implies  the  interpretation  of  the  experience 


The  Intellectual  Organisation  of  the  School  53 

for  which  the  study  stands  from  the  genetic  point  of  view,  i.  e., 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  one  who  is  realizing  the  experi- 
ence: whereas  the  logic  of  a  study  is  concerned  with  the  classifi- 
cation of  '  experiences '  from  the  standpoint  of  completed  prod- 
uct, rather  than  from  that  of  imperfect  or  incomplete  process. 
A  logic  (or  psychology)  of  the  course  of  study,  aiming  at  a 
classification  of  experiences,  assumes  differentiation.  A  psychol- 
ogy of  studies  is  concerned  as  well  with  the  other  phase  of  the 
problem  of  upbuilding  experience  through  instruction,  namely, 
the  phase  of  the  process  by  which  out  of  the  '  continuum '  of 
the  child's  experiences,  differences  gradually  emerge.  The  prob- 
lem seems  to  be,  fundamentally,  one  of  reaching  an  interpretation 
of  instruction  as  a  dynamic  process. 

(c)  For  Dr.  Harris  the  fundamental  principle  of  philosophy 
and  psychology  is  self -activity.  The  goal  of  evolution  is  the 
realization  of  the  self  in  nature  and  the  knowledge  of  self.  But 
this  evolution  in  the  '  mastery  of  knowledge  and  control  takes 
place  in  the  individual  through  his  self-activity,  through  his  ability 
to  modify  his  environment.'  Does  not  the  language  of  the  chap- 
ter on  the  '  Course  of  Study '  tend  to  suggest  a  conception  of 
the  soul  as  a  passive  monad  rather  than  a  self -active  one?  Ac- 
cording to  Dr.  Harris's  interpretation  of  the  category  of  self- 
activity,  studies  should  ultimately  be  regarded  as  modes  of  self- 
realization  rather  than  as  external  materials  or  objective  exist- 
ences '  mirrored '  by  the  mind.  '  Take  away,'  says  Dr.  Harris, 
'  the  individual's  power  of  self-determination  and  surround  him 
ever  so  much  with  the  adaptations  of  nature  or  with  summarized 
results  of  human  observation  and  reflection  and  it  all  goes  for 
nothing.'  Are  not  these  words  applicable,  to  some  degree  at 
least,  to  the  child  ?  If  they  are,  it  would  seem  to  follow  logically 
that  we  should  not  underestimate  the  value  of  direct,  personal, 
productive  experience,  of  a  close  union  of  intelligence  and  will 
through  the  entire  school  life,  of  some  personal  intimacy  with 
typical  processes  whereby  the  society  of  the  present  is  actually 
maintained. 


54  The  Philosophy  of  Education 


If  XXXV.   PROFESSOR   REIN'S   FORMULATION   OF   THE   SUB- 
JECT-MATTER OF  INSTRUCTION 

Consult,  Outlines  of  Pedagogics. 

Professor  Rein  maintains  that  in  the  formation  of  the  cur- 
riculum the  following  factors  should  be  kept  in  mind : 

(a)  The  ultimate  moral  and  religious  purpose; 

(b)  The  harmonious  psychological  and  historical  gradation 
of  the  instruction ; 

(c)  The  correlation  of  the  various  materials  of  instruction. 

1.  This  formulation  of  the  course  of  study  has  its  basis  in 
the  so-called  doctrine  of  the  culture-epochs,  —  the  doctrine  which 
(to  state  it  in  brief  form)  holds  that  the  individual  in  his  devel- 
opment reproduces  the  main  stages  passed  through  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  race;  in  other  words,  that  development  reproduces 
evolution;  the  educational  inference  being  that  the  culture  prod- 
ucts in  particular  epochs  in  the  evolution  of  the  race  are  the  most 
appropriate  material  for  the  individual  in  his  corresponding  stages 
of  development. 

2.  Concerning   the   theory   of   the   'culture-epochs '   as   af- 
fording the  basic  principle  in  the  determination  of  the  course  of 
study,  the  following  general  considerations  are  to  be  kept  in  view : 

(a)  There  are,  in  reality,  involved  two  questions,  (i)  of 
scientific  fact,  (ii)  of  educational  interpretation.  So  far  it  is 
an  hypothesis  merely,  and  not  a  statement  of  scientific  fact. 
While  lacking  strict  scientific  verification,  there  is  this  to  be 
said  in  its  support,  that  as  a  doctrine  it  has  been  a  common  pos- 
session of  man  in  many  lines  of  intellectual  activity.  This,  how- 
ever, does  not  eliminate  its  hypothetical  character. 

(&)  Admitting  its  provisional  character  as  a  scientific 
theory,  it  will  at  once  be  recognized  how  this  idea  of  correspond- 
ence between  race  evolution  and  individual  development  would 
tend  to  emphasize  the  essentially  organic  and  social  character  of 
consciousness,  and  that  the  development  of  the  individual  must 
be  along  the  lines  marked  out  by  the  previous  evolutionary  proc- 
ess. In  other  words,  that  the  progress  of  the  future  must  be 
essentially  in  the  directions  and  by  the  method  indicated  in  the 
spiritual  achievements  of  the  past. 


The  Intellectual  Organisation  of  the  School  55 

(c)  The  'culture-epoch'  theory,  as  outlined  by  Professor 
Rein,  seems  at  first  to  favor  a  genetic  or  psychological  statement 
of  the  course  of  study,  rather  than  a  merely  logical  or  sociological 
one.     On  the  other  hand,  the  question  may  with  fairness  be 
asked,  If  an  exact  parallelism  cannot  be  proved,  which  standard 
are  we  to  employ,  the  apperceiving  levels  (processes)  in  the  de- 
velopment of  the  individual,  or  the  successive  epochs  (culture- 
products)  in  the  evolution  of  the  race? 

(d)  Even  though  it  be  granted  that  similar  '  psychical  atti- 
tudes '  exist  in  primitive  man  and  the  child  (a  very  large  admis- 
sion, in  the  light  of  the  different  environments,  environments 
which  are,  in  reality,  not  "  outside  "  the  instincts  but  organically 
united  with  them),  is  it  not  true  that  the  child  persists  in  that 
'  attitude '  a  very  much  shorter  time  than  did  primitive  man  ? 
The  fact  of  social  heredity  makes  mental  economy  possible.    Has 
not  the  progress  of  civilization,  from  one  point  of  view,  meant 
this  very  thing,  the  regulating,  the  abbreviating  and  facilitating 
the  process  of  adaptation  to  the  existing  social  order?    Taken  in 
its  literalness,  the  culture-epoch  theory  would  produce  an  effect 
directly  tfie  contrary  to  that  proposed  by  education.     The  ac- 
commodation or  adjustment,  in  which  the  '  idea '  of  the  educa- 
tional process  is  discerned,  is  not  with  reference  to  stages  of 
civilization  which  have  been  left  behind  or  outgrown,  but  to 
that  concrete  and  actual  social  system  of  interests,  values,  ac- 
tivities, which  together  constitute  the  reality  of  present  civiliza- 
tion.   It  is  present  civilization  as  actual  and  as  embodying  an  ideal 
towards  which  the  society  of  the  present  is  struggling  which  the 
child  is  to  be  led  to  understand.    Recourse  is  had  to  the  past  not  for 
its  own  sake,  nor  because  it  is  "  dead,"  but  in  order  that  through 
contrast   a  more  comprehensive   understanding  of  the  present 
which  has  grown  out  of  the  past  may  be  secured.    The  past  must 
throw  light  upon  the  present;  it  must  not  become  a  substitute 
for  it. 


56  The  Philosophy  of  Education 


fl XXXVI.    PROFESSOR   DEWEY'S  INTERPRETATION  OF  THE 
COURSE   OF   STUDY 

Consult,  School  and  Society;  The  Educational  Situation;  The  Ele- 
mentary School  Record;  Ethical  Principles  Underlying  Education, 
in,  Third  Year  Book  of  the  Herbart  Society. 

Professor  Dewey  maintains  that  the  education  of  the  present 
must  undergo,  in  response  to  the  changed  social  conditions,  a 
reconstruction  in  aim,  in  subject-matter  and  method;  a  recon- 
struction not  hurried  nor  haphazard,  but  thorough-going  and  ra- 
tional. This  reconstruction,  moreover,  Professor  Dewey  holds, 
is  already  in  progress.  For  him  the  controlling  factors  in  the 
primary  curriculum  of  the  future  are  '  manual  training,  science, 
nature-study,  art  and  history.  These  keep  alive  the  child's  posi- 
tive and  creative  impulses,  and  direct  them  in  such  ways  as  to 
discipline  them  into  the  habits  of  thought  and  action  required  for 
effective  participation  in  community  life.'  '  It  is  possible  to 
initiate  the  child  from  the  first  in  a  direct,  not  abstract  or  sym- 
bolic, way,  into  the  operations  by  which  society  maintains  its  ex- 
istence, material  and  spiritual.'  '  The  present  has  its  claims. 
It  is  in  education,  if  anywhere,  that  the  claims  of  the  present 
should  be  controlling  .  .  .'  '  Nevertheless  eternal  vigilance  is 
the  price  of  liberty,  and  eternal  care  and  nurture  are  the  price  of 
maintaining  the  precious  conquest  of  the  past  —  of  preventing 
a  relapse  into  Philistinism,  that  combination  of  superficial  enlight- 
enment and  dogmatic  crudity.  If  it  were  not  for  an  aristocracy 
of  the  past,  there  would  be  but  little  worth  conferring  upon  the 
democracy  of  to-day.' 

H  XXXVII.   THE   MEANING   OF   THE   COURSE   OF   STUDY 

i.  Education  as  a  method  by  means  of  which  individuals 
come  to  participate  in  an  intellectual  and  moral  inheritance  — 
The  spiritual  possessions  of  society  as  the  outcome  of  experi- 
ence—  The  spiritual  organism  of  experience  —  The  course  of 
study  as  representing  that  organism  —  Its  unity  —  Its  repro- 
duction by  the  individual  —  The  process  of  familiarization  —  The 
penetration  and  realization  by  the  individual  of  the  intellectual 
order  of  the  school  —  The  aim  of  instruction  as  the  mediating 


The  Intellectual  Organization  of  the  School  57 

between  this  intellectual  order  and  the  mind  of  the  pupil  in  such 
a  way  that  the  latter  may  conform  to  its  law,  not  as  a  matter  of 
constraint  but  as  the  natural  expression  of  his  own  mind  —  The 
school  as  developing  an  attachment  to  an  intellectual  and  moral 
order  of  life. 

2.  The    meaning   of   '  studies '    in    terms  of   social    life  — 
The  curriculum  as  representing  the  corporate  (the  unitary  and 
inter-related)  aspect,  and  studies  as  representing  the  individual 
(differentiated)  aspects  of  social  experience  —  The  difficulty  in- 
herent in  any  rigid  classification  —  Social  life  as  furnishing  the 
standard  of  educational  values  —  The  movement  of  social  ex- 
perience maintained  through  knowledge   (science)    and  expres- 
sion (art)  —  Science,  art  and  morality  as  phases  of  the  unitary, 
spiritual  movement  of  social  life  —  The  curriculum  as  affording 
(a)  a  method,  (b)  an  interpretation  or  value,  by  which  the  in- 
dividual learns  the  meaning  of  his  capacities  in  their  functional 
relation  to  the  social  order.    Studies  as  plans  of  action  by  means 
of  which  the  individual  gains  control  over  and  help  in  the  inter- 
pretation of  his  experience  —  Control  over  experience  (through 
gaining  its  method  and  interpretation)  as  growth  in  freedom. 

3.  Principles  to  be  kept  in  mind  in  the  selection  of  studies: 
(a)  Sociological.    Does  the  study  (as  a  group  of  facts  or  princi- 
ples gathered  together  and  systematized)   embody  some  funda- 
mental phase  of  social  experience?     Does  it  represent  a  funda- 
mental manifestation  of  the  spiritual  life  of  the  race?    What  in- 
terest is  fundamental  to  the  study?     (6)   Psychological.     What 
part  does  the  study  play  in  helping  the  individual  to  interpret  his 
crude  experience  and  to  control  his  powers  with  reference  to  social 
ends? 

4.  Conceived  in  relation  to  the  individual  learner,  studies 
represent  phases  in  the  movement  or  process  of  a  unitary  experi- 
ence.    This  experience  is  continuous:  it  is  also  dynamic,  transi- 
tional.    Studies,  then,  must  first  of  all  appeal  to  the  individual 
as  continuous  with  his  own  experience.    As  educational  material 
studies  have  existence  only  in  the  experience  of  some  individual. 
The  individual,  as  bearer  of  the  experience,  and  as  the  agent 
through  whom  the  movement  of  experience  takes  place,  is  the  ulti- 
mate center  of  the  differentiation  and  integration  in  which  mental 
development  consists.    The  self  at  any  stage  is  an  organic  whole, 
and  analysis  and  synthesis  (differentiation  and  integration)  are 


58  The  Philosophy  of  Education 

•correlative  elements  in  the  movement  of  a  unitary  experience. 
The  constitutive  and  defining  element  in  a  study  is  the  particular 
impulse  or  interest  it  represents  in  the  unity  of  experience. 
Studies  represent  fundamentally  attempts  towards  a  construction 
by  the  individual  of  the  world  of  experience  from  particular  points 
of  view.  They  arise  through  the  emergence  in  new  situations  of 
interests,  attitudes,  and  tensions  within  the  process  of  self-main- 
tenance and  self-development.  From  this  point  of  view,  therefore, 
it  is  not  entirely  true  that  studies  '  succeed '  one  another :  the 
educative  process  is  rather  a  continuous  re-formation  or  re-con- 
struction of  experience  in  the  light  of  new  interests  and  deepening 
appreciation  of  its  significance. 

5.  The  doctrine  of  the  social  nature  of  consciousness  has 
been  perhaps  sufficiently  emphasized  in  previous  sections.     Here 
it  is  necessary,  therefore,  merely  to  indicate  some  of  its  more 
important  implications  in  the  theory  of  the  course  of  study.    These 
may  be  summarized  as  follows:     (a)  The  necessity  of  continuity 
between  the  informal  education  of  the  home  and  the  more  formal 
-education  of  the  school.     (&)  The  experience  of  the  child  with 
its  interests,  activities,  habits,  forms  the  true  center  of  correlation 
in  the  educational  process,  viewed  from  the  psychological  side. 
From  the  social  point  of  view  the  principle  is  found  in  the  typical 
social  activities  and  interests,     (c)    (As  a  corollary  of  the  pre- 
ceding)   Studies  will  have  vital  significance  for  the  individual 
in  the  degree  to  which  they  can  be  related  to  the  process  of  social 
life,  and  thus  made,  in  turn,  organic  parts  of. the  individual's 
needs,  interests,  purposes,  (d)  If  social  experience  is  unitary,  it 
follows  that  there  is  but  one  subject-matter,  now  emphasized 
from  one  point  of  view,  and  now  from  another,  in  accordance 
with  the  level  of  experience  and  ability  attained  by  the  pupils. 
(e)  Good  character  as  the  end  of  the  intellectual  and  moral  order 

•of  the  school  will  be  developed,  not  so  much  through  special  in- 
struction, as  through  the  entire  society  of  the  school,  the  com- 
munity, the  recitation,  the  method,  the  discipline  and  the  general 
moral  atmosphere. 

6.  The  question  of  the  relation  of  subject-matter  and  method 
is  ultimately  akin  to  the  problem  of  knowledge  in  general.    When 
Kant  asks,  '  By  what  means  our  faculty  of  knowledge  should 
t>e  aroused  to  activity  but  by  objects? '  his  question  (as  the  whole 
tenor  of  his  later  argument  discloses)  amounts  to  this,  '  How  a 


The  Intellectual  Organisation  of  the  School  59 

non-existent  object  should  act  upon  a  non-existent  subject.'    So 
far  at  least  as  the  Aesthetic  is  concerned,  Kant  appears  to  take 
for  granted  that  the  subject  has  a  nature  of  its  own  independently 
of  the  object,  and  the  object  a  nature  of  its  own  independently 
of  the  subject.    In  a  manner  very  similar  much  of  the  discussion 
at  the  present  time  seems  to  assume  a  dualism  of  subject-matter 
and  method.    As  was  indicated  in  Sub-section  13,  the  result  of  the 
Kantian  analysis  was  that  the  '  object '  is  relative  to  the  '  sub- 
ject.'    In  like  manner  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  subject- 
matter  is  relative  to  the  nature  of  the  individual.    It  is  not  some- 
thing hard  and  fixed,  external  to  the  mind.     The  educational 
process  is  not  the  outcome  of  a  mind  with  pre-formed  faculties 
operating  upon  external  material ;  nor  is  it  the  adaptation  of  a 
mind  to  a  material  completely  pre-determined.     It  is  a  process 
in  which  the  organization  of  the  material  goes  hand  in  hand  with 
the  organization  or  realization  of  a  self  or  person.    Subject-matter 
and  method,  therefore,  are  not  completely  isolable  entities,  but  are 
rather  the  terminal  or  differentiated  aspects  of  the  process  of 
upbuilding  a  unitary  experience.    A  subject  is  a  mental  process 
and  its  method  is  the  mode  of  operation  of  the  mental  process. 

If  XXXVIII.   THE  METHOD  OF  EDUCATION   IN  THE  EVOLU- 
TION OF  CIVILIZATION 

The  method  of  self-knowledge  —  Evolution  maintains  that 
we  cannot  understand  a  human  being  except  by  knowing  the 
process  whereby  he  has  come  to  be  what  he  is  —  The  individual 
to  be  educated  is  intelligible  only  as  part  of  a  process  —  To  know 
himself,  to  consciously  possess  himself,  the  individual  must  know 
his  presuppositions  in  nature  and  civilization  —  Culture  as  the 
realization  in  consciousness  of  the  presuppositions  of  personal 
life  —  The  '  course  of  study '  in  the  school  and  college  as  a 
chart  of  civilization  —  Philosophy  as  a  synthesis —  The  evolu- 
tion of  civilization  as  the  basis  of  a  system  of  national  education. 

FURTHER  PROBLEMS  FOR  STUDY: 

1.  Adjustment  of  education  to  contemporary  needs. 

2.  Is  a  permanently  adequate  definition  of  education  possible? 

3.  Psychological  versus  logical  aspects  of  the  course  of  study. 

4.  Philosophy  and  the  integration  of  studies  in  the  curriculum. 


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